walls have ears
walls have ears proverb: there is always a risk of being overheard, so one should be careful about what one says.
Proverb
walls have ears
- There is always a risk of being overheard, so one should be careful about what one says.
- "But it is well to remember that walls have ears, and therefore to whisper."1915, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 20, in Steve Yeager
- “We're talking about everything you can't discuss in Damascus, because there the walls have ears,” Mr. Taieb said.2015 July 15, Thanassis Cambanis, “A Syrian Parody Features the Civil War, and Is Stalked by It”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 14 Apr 2020, retrieved 27 Sep 2017
- Synonyms:
- pitchers have ears
walls have ears meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Telugu and Arabic
walls have ears in Hindi
- be careful about what you say
- दीवारों के भी कान होते हैं dīvārõ ke bhī kān hote ha͠i
walls have ears in Bengali
- be careful about what you say
- দেয়ালের কান আছে deẏaler kan ache
walls have ears in Telugu
- be careful about what you say
- గోడకు చెవులుంటాయి gōḍaku cevuluṇṭāyi
walls have ears in Arabic
- be careful about what you say
- اَلْجِدْرَانُ لَهَا آذَانٌ al-jidrānu lahā ʔāḏānun, لِلْحِيطَانِ آذَانٌ li-l-ḥīṭāni ʔāḏānun
More languagesFewer languages
- walls have ears in Thai
- กำแพงมีหู ประตูมีช่อง, กำแพงมีหู ประตูมีตา
- walls have ears in Vietnamese
- tai vách mạch dừng
- walls have ears in Myanmar
- နံရံတိုင်းမှာ နားတွေရှိတယ် nam-ramtuing:hma na:twehri.tai
Synonyms of walls have ears
Questions about walls have ears
- What does walls have ears mean?
- Walls have ears means there is always a risk of being overheard, so one should be careful about what one says.
- What is walls have ears in Hindi?
- Walls have ears in Hindi is दीवारों के भी कान होते हैं (dīvārõ ke bhī kān hote ha͠i). See Walls have ears meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is walls have ears?
- Walls have ears is a proverb.
Words near walls have ears in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: walls have 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-walls have ears.wav.
Cite this entry: “walls have ears.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/walls_have_ears. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
