See little pitchers have big ears in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for little pitchers have big ears meaning in English (2.5kB)
{
"etymology_text": "An allusion to the ear-shaped handles common on pitchers used for serving liquids.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "proverb",
"head": "little pitchers have big ears"
},
"expansion": "little pitchers have big ears",
"name": "head"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "proverb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English proverbs",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Welsh links with redundant wikilinks",
"parents": [
"Links with redundant wikilinks",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1844, Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 2, in Abbeychurch",
"text": "Seeing me listening to something she was saying to Mamma, she turned round upon me with that odious proverb, \"Little pitchers have long ears.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1939 April 17, “Bedtime Bedlam”, in Time",
"text": "A caution to U. S. parents, but a joy to radio merchandising, is the dread truth that little pitchers have big ears.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2000, Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, page 185",
"text": "[N]o kid ever ran to his mother and said that his little sister just defecated in the tub. I suppose he might say pushed or went woowoo, but took a shit is, I fear, very much in the ballpark (little pitchers have big ears, after all).",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Small children often overhear more of what is said than adults realize or desire."
],
"id": "en-little_pitchers_have_big_ears-en-proverb-D6jnHuW9",
"links": [
[
"children",
"children"
],
[
"overhear",
"overhear"
],
[
"adult",
"adult"
],
[
"realize",
"realize"
],
[
"desire",
"desire"
]
],
"related": [
{
"word": "pas devant les enfants"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "little pitchers have long ears"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "proverb",
"word": "små gryder har også ører"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "proverb",
"word": "pienilläkin padoilla on korvat"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "proverb",
"word": "hay orejas chiquitas"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "proverb",
"word": "små grytor har också öron"
},
{
"code": "cy",
"lang": "Welsh",
"sense": "proverb",
"word": "mae gan foch bach glustiau (mawr)"
},
{
"code": "cy",
"lang": "Welsh",
"sense": "proverb",
"word": "mae clustiau gan foch bach (mawr)"
}
]
}
],
"word": "little pitchers have big ears"
}
{
"etymology_text": "An allusion to the ear-shaped handles common on pitchers used for serving liquids.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "proverb",
"head": "little pitchers have big ears"
},
"expansion": "little pitchers have big ears",
"name": "head"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "proverb",
"related": [
{
"word": "pas devant les enfants"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English proverbs",
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned",
"Welsh links with redundant wikilinks"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1844, Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 2, in Abbeychurch",
"text": "Seeing me listening to something she was saying to Mamma, she turned round upon me with that odious proverb, \"Little pitchers have long ears.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1939 April 17, “Bedtime Bedlam”, in Time",
"text": "A caution to U. S. parents, but a joy to radio merchandising, is the dread truth that little pitchers have big ears.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2000, Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, page 185",
"text": "[N]o kid ever ran to his mother and said that his little sister just defecated in the tub. I suppose he might say pushed or went woowoo, but took a shit is, I fear, very much in the ballpark (little pitchers have big ears, after all).",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Small children often overhear more of what is said than adults realize or desire."
],
"links": [
[
"children",
"children"
],
[
"overhear",
"overhear"
],
[
"adult",
"adult"
],
[
"realize",
"realize"
],
[
"desire",
"desire"
]
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "little pitchers have long ears"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "proverb",
"word": "små gryder har også ører"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "proverb",
"word": "pienilläkin padoilla on korvat"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "proverb",
"word": "hay orejas chiquitas"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "proverb",
"word": "små grytor har också öron"
},
{
"code": "cy",
"lang": "Welsh",
"sense": "proverb",
"word": "mae gan foch bach glustiau (mawr)"
},
{
"code": "cy",
"lang": "Welsh",
"sense": "proverb",
"word": "mae clustiau gan foch bach (mawr)"
}
],
"word": "little pitchers have big ears"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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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