listen

Please listen carefully as I explain.

I could hear you talking upstairs, but I didn’t really listen to your conversation.

It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street.[…]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.

1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01:

He reined Wrangle to a walk, halted now and then to listen, and then proceeded cautiously with shifting and alert gaze.

1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 4, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:

'But, sir, lyars ye have lystened, and that hath caused grete debate betwyxte you and me.'

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XX:

Lady, vouchsafe to listen what I say.

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

Here laid his Scrip, with wholesome Viands fill'd, / There, listening every Noise, his watchful Dog.

a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC:

I like to listen to music.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

I'm listening to what you say / Even though I look the other way / But you could never understand / The feeling of what I'm needing

2007, KT Tunstall, “Saving My Face”, in Drastic Fantastic:

You should listen for the starting gun.

(intransitive except in archaic usage) To use one's sense of hearing in an intentional way; to make deliberate use of one's ears; to pay attention to or wait for a specific sound.

Listen, the only reason I yelled at you was because I was upset, OK?

Good children listen to their parents.

Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common interest[…].

1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

(intransitive) To accept advice or obey instruction; to agree or assent.

en-verb

listen (third-person singular simple present listens, present participle listening, simple past and past participle listened)

listens (present singular third-person)
listening (participle present)
listened (participle past)
listened (past)
lisen (alternative)
lis'en (alternative)
lissen (alternative)

talk to the hand 'cause the face ain't listening

From Middle English listenen, listnen, alteration (due to Middle English listen (“to listen, give heed to”)) of Old English hlysnan (“to listen”), from Proto-Germanic *hlusnijaną, *hlusnōną (compare Middle High German lüsenen), from Proto-Germanic *hlusēną (compare Old High German hlosēn), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”).
Cognate with Swedish lyssna (“to listen”).
Compare Ancient Greek κλαίω (klaíō, “I make known, famous”), Welsh clywed (“to hear”), Latin clueō (“I am famous”), Lithuanian klausýti, Old Church Slavonic слушати (slušati, “to hear”), Sanskrit श्रोषति (śróṣati, “an exclamation used in making an offering with fire to the gods or departed spirits”) & Sanskrit श्लोक्य (ślókya, “voice, sound, noisy”)).
Related to loud and German lauschen.


listen

Give the motor a listen and tell me if it sounds off.

The diss song, “Back to Back,” now has more than 124 million listens, a sign that the streaming can attract a sizable audience for a single track.

2016 March 29, Victor Luckerson, “There's a New Way To Listen To All the Remixes You Want”, in Time:

I hadn't spoken to her in a year, but she could still see my listens on the music platform we both used.

2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books, →ISBN:

listens (plural)
lisen (alternative)
lis'en (alternative)
lissen (alternative)