Word.ws English Dictionary

had the wolf by the ear

had the wolf by the ear is the simple past and past participle of have the wolf by the ear.

Meaning of have the wolf by the ear

Verb

have the wolf by the ear (third-person singular simple present has the wolf by the ear, present participle having the wolf by the ear, simple past and past participle had the wolf by the ear)

  1. (idiomatic) To be in a dangerous situation from which one cannot disengage, but in which one cannot safely remain.

Questions about had the wolf by the ear

What is had the wolf by the ear the simple past and past participle of?
Had the wolf by the ear is the simple past and past participle of have the wolf by the ear.

Words near had the wolf by the ear in the dictionary

  1. had the pleasure
  2. had the right time
  3. had the sun in one's eyes
  4. had the tiger by the tail
  5. had the wind up
  6. had the wolf by the ear
  7. had the world by the bag
  8. had the world by the balls
  9. had the world by the neck
  10. had the world by the nuts
  11. had the world by the tail

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: had the wolf by the ear (page history and authors); have the wolf by the ear (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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