Word.ws English Dictionary

going in one ear and out the other

going in one ear and out the other is the present participle of go in one ear and out the other.

Meaning of go in one ear and out the other

Verb

go in one ear and out the other (third-person singular simple present goes in one ear and out the other, present participle going in one ear and out the other, simple past went in one ear and out the other, past participle gone in one ear and out the other)

  1. (idiomatic) To be heard but not attended to, when a person fails to pay attention.
    • He told me whom he saw, but it went in one ear and out the other.

Questions about going in one ear and out the other

What is going in one ear and out the other the present participle of?
Going in one ear and out the other is the present participle of go in one ear and out the other.

Words near going in one ear and out the other in the dictionary

  1. going in
  2. going in at one ear and at out the other
  3. going in circles
  4. going in off
  5. going in on
  6. going in one ear and out the other
  7. going in the out door
  8. going in unto
  9. going in with
  10. going into
  11. going into detail

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: going in one ear and out the other (page history and authors); go in one ear and out the other (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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