Word.ws English Dictionary

listen with half an ear

listen with half an ear verb: to listen distractedly, without paying attention.

Verb

listen with half an ear (third-person singular simple present listens with half an ear, present participle listening with half an ear, simple past and past participle listened with half an ear)

  1. (figuratively) To listen distractedly, without paying attention.

Forms of listen with half an ear

third-person singular presentlistens with half an ear
present participlelistening with half an ear
past participlelistened with half an ear
pastlistened with half an ear

Questions about listen with half an ear

What does listen with half an ear mean?
Listen with half an ear means to listen distractedly, without paying attention.
What part of speech is listen with half an ear?
Listen with half an ear is a verb.
What is the past tense of listen with half an ear?
The past tense of listen with half an ear is listened with half an ear.

Words near listen with half an ear in the dictionary

  1. listen after
  2. listen in
  3. listen out
  4. listen to you
  5. listen up
  6. listen with half an ear
  7. listenability
  8. listenable
  9. listened
  10. listened after
  11. listened in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: listen with half an 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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