Word.ws English Dictionary

little pitchers have big ears

little pitchers have big ears proverb: small children often overhear more of what is said than adults realize or desire.

Proverb

little pitchers have big ears

  1. Small children often overhear more of what is said than adults realize or desire.
    • Seeing me listening to something she was saying to Mamma, she turned round upon me with that odious proverb, "Little pitchers have long ears."1844, Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 2, in Abbeychurch
    • A caution to U. S. parents, but a joy to radio merchandising, is the dread truth that little pitchers have big ears.1939 April 17, “Bedtime Bedlam”, in Time

Synonyms of little pitchers have big ears

Origin of little pitchers have big ears

An allusion to the ear-shaped handles common on pitchers used for serving liquids.

Questions about little pitchers have big ears

What does little pitchers have big ears mean?
Little pitchers have big ears means small children often overhear more of what is said than adults realize or desire.
What part of speech is little pitchers have big ears?
Little pitchers have big ears is a proverb.

Words near little pitchers have big ears in the dictionary

  1. Little Pine Lagoon
  2. little pink
  3. little pinks
  4. little pitcher
  5. little pitchers
  6. little pitchers have big ears
  7. little pitchers have long ears
  8. Little Plain
  9. Little Ponton
  10. Little Ponton and Stroxton
  11. little professor

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: little pitchers have big ears (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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