prick up one's ears
prick up one's ears verb: to listen attentively.
Verb
prick up one's ears (third-person singular simple present pricks up one's ears, present participle pricking up one's ears, simple past and past participle pricked up one's ears)
- To listen attentively.
- 'I doubt if you will ever have met "Rainproof" Nogg,' wrote one about this time—a shrewd old lady whose Dutch-sounding name caused pushful young hostesses to prick up their ears even when it reached them at third hand.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries
- Synonyms:
- perk up one's ears, pin one's ears back
Synonyms of prick up one's ears
Forms of prick up one's ears
| third-person singular present | pricks up one's ears |
|---|---|
| present participle | pricking up one's ears |
| past participle | pricked up one's ears |
| past | pricked up one's ears |
| alternative form | prick one's ears |
Questions about prick up one's ears
- What does prick up one's ears mean?
- Prick up one's ears means to listen attentively.
- What part of speech is prick up one's ears?
- Prick up one's ears is a verb.
- What is the past tense of prick up one's ears?
- The past tense of prick up one's ears is pricked up one's ears.
Words near prick up one's ears in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prick up one's 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-prick up one's ears.ogg.
Cite this entry: “prick up one's ears.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prick_up_one%27s_ears. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.