"all eyes and ears" meaning in English

See all eyes and ears in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: en-au-all eyes and ears.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: A calque of French tout yeux, tout oreilles "to be all eyes, all ears", etc.; originally found only in translations of French works. Compare all eyes, all ears. Etymology templates: {{cln|en|undefined derivations}}, {{uder|en|fr|-}} French Head templates: {{head|en|adjective}} all eyes and ears
  1. (idiomatic) Very attentive. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: all fingers and thumbs
    Sense id: en-all_eyes_and_ears-en-adj-fnScSxT7 Categories (other): English undefined derivations

Download JSON data for all eyes and ears meaning in English (2.9kB)

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
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        "2": "undefined derivations"
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    {
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        "2": "fr",
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      "expansion": "French",
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  "etymology_text": "A calque of French tout yeux, tout oreilles \"to be all eyes, all ears\", etc.; originally found only in translations of French works. Compare all eyes, all ears.",
  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
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          "name": "English undefined derivations",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1747 February, Viscount Ebrington (tr., ed.), the Père Girard (author), The Mother-Tongue: Or, Methodical Instruction in the Mother-Tongue in Schools and Families, John W. Parker, page 26,\nThe volatility of children is proverbial: from the cradle their attention is attracted toward the visible objects around them, particularly towards those which shine or move, or emit sound. Thus they have accustomed themselves to be all eyes and ears; not indeed for the dumb language of a book, or for lessons which are often monotonous and unintelligible, but in order to see and hear whatever may stimulate their natural curiosity."
        },
        {
          "text": "1759, Jaques Tristan (?) (tr., ed.), Marguerite Jeanne Cordier Staal (author), Memoirs of Madame De Stahl, page 219,\n“I am,” ſaid I, “incenſed againſt your Governor, for the Noiſe he made. Priſoners are all Eyes and Ears; though locked up, they come to the Knowledge of whatever paſſes: They hold that every little Motion concerns them, and trace it to the Bottom. […]”"
        },
        {
          "text": "1798, Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (tr., ed.), Marie-Jeanne Roland (author), An Appeal to Impartial Posterity: By Madame Roland, Wife of the Minister of the Interior: Or, A Collection of Tracts, Written by Her During Her Confinement in the Prisons of the Abbey, and St. Pelagie, in Paris, Robert Wilson, volume 2, page 158,\nSeated by my mother, and keeping the ſilence that cuſtom preſcribes to young women, I was all eyes and ears; but when we chanced for a moment in private with Madam l’Epine, I aſked her a few queſtions, the anſwers to which elucidated my obſervations."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Very attentive."
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      "id": "en-all_eyes_and_ears-en-adj-fnScSxT7",
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          "attentive"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Very attentive."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "all fingers and thumbs"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
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      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/45/En-au-all_eyes_and_ears.ogg/En-au-all_eyes_and_ears.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/En-au-all_eyes_and_ears.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
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  "word": "all eyes and ears"
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  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "all fingers and thumbs"
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        "English terms derived from French",
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        "English undefined derivations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1747 February, Viscount Ebrington (tr., ed.), the Père Girard (author), The Mother-Tongue: Or, Methodical Instruction in the Mother-Tongue in Schools and Families, John W. Parker, page 26,\nThe volatility of children is proverbial: from the cradle their attention is attracted toward the visible objects around them, particularly towards those which shine or move, or emit sound. Thus they have accustomed themselves to be all eyes and ears; not indeed for the dumb language of a book, or for lessons which are often monotonous and unintelligible, but in order to see and hear whatever may stimulate their natural curiosity."
        },
        {
          "text": "1759, Jaques Tristan (?) (tr., ed.), Marguerite Jeanne Cordier Staal (author), Memoirs of Madame De Stahl, page 219,\n“I am,” ſaid I, “incenſed againſt your Governor, for the Noiſe he made. Priſoners are all Eyes and Ears; though locked up, they come to the Knowledge of whatever paſſes: They hold that every little Motion concerns them, and trace it to the Bottom. […]”"
        },
        {
          "text": "1798, Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (tr., ed.), Marie-Jeanne Roland (author), An Appeal to Impartial Posterity: By Madame Roland, Wife of the Minister of the Interior: Or, A Collection of Tracts, Written by Her During Her Confinement in the Prisons of the Abbey, and St. Pelagie, in Paris, Robert Wilson, volume 2, page 158,\nSeated by my mother, and keeping the ſilence that cuſtom preſcribes to young women, I was all eyes and ears; but when we chanced for a moment in private with Madam l’Epine, I aſked her a few queſtions, the anſwers to which elucidated my obſervations."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Very attentive."
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        "(idiomatic) Very attentive."
      ],
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/En-au-all_eyes_and_ears.ogg",
      "tags": [
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      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "all eyes and ears"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-01 using wiktextract (ee658f9 and be4df6b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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