Word.ws English Dictionary

put a bug in someone's ear

put a bug in someone's ear verb: to make a small suggestion or give a hint that causes the listener to act.

Verb

put a bug in someone's ear (third-person singular simple present puts a bug in someone's ear, present participle putting a bug in someone's ear, simple past and past participle put a bug in someone's ear)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To make a small suggestion or give a hint that causes the listener to act.
    • All in all, the preparation of Seuils had put a nasty bug in my ear that was to bear all its fruit only ten years later—if bugs can bear fruit—and not without intermediate phases.2005, Gärard Genette, Essays in Aesthetics, page 13
    • Ginger Rogers had definitely put a bug in Pan's ear about the movies for, after he was fired from Top Speed, Hermes decided to try his luck earning a living on the West Coast.2012, John Franceschina, Hermes Pan: The Man Who Danced with Fred Astaire, page 33

Forms of put a bug in someone's ear

third-person singular presentputs a bug in someone's ear
present participleputting a bug in someone's ear
past participleput a bug in someone's ear
pastput a bug in someone's ear

Questions about put a bug in someone's ear

What does put a bug in someone's ear mean?
Put a bug in someone's ear means to make a small suggestion or give a hint that causes the listener to act.
What part of speech is put a bug in someone's ear?
Put a bug in someone's ear is a verb.
What is the past tense of put a bug in someone's ear?
The past tense of put a bug in someone's ear is put a bug in someone's ear.

Words near put a bug in someone's ear in the dictionary

  1. put 'em up
  2. put a band-aid on a bullet wound
  3. put a blanket over
  4. put a block on
  5. put a brave face on
  6. put a bug in someone's ear
  7. put a civil tongue in one's head
  8. put a civil tongue in one's mouth
  9. put a cork in it
  10. put a crimp in
  11. put a damper on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: put a bug in someone's 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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