Word.ws English Dictionary

having the wolf by the ear

having the wolf by the ear is the present participle and gerund 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 having the wolf by the ear

What is having the wolf by the ear the present participle and gerund of?
Having the wolf by the ear is the present participle and gerund of have the wolf by the ear.

Words near having the wolf by the ear in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: having 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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Cite this entry: “having the wolf by the ear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/having_the_wolf_by_the_ear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.