earful
Americannoun
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an outpouring of oral information or advice, especially when given without solicitation.
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a sharp verbal rebuke; a scolding.
noun
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something heard or overheard
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a rebuke or scolding, esp a lengthy or severe one
Spelling
See -ful.
Etymology
Origin of earful
Explanation
When you give someone an earful, you angrily tell the person what you think. Your teacher might give the class an earful when no one has finished yesterday's homework. The informal word earful is good for describing a lengthy reprimand or angry criticism. A furious senator might give her colleagues an earful when they can't reach a compromise, and a frustrated father might give his kids an earful after losing track of them in a busy shopping mall. Earful was first used in the mid-1900's, from the Old English roots eare, or "ear," and the suffix ful, "full or full of."
Vocabulary lists containing earful
Front Desk
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Amari and the Night Brothers
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But if you try to place a piece of this infrastructure in their communities, well, someone in the administration is going to get an earful.
From Slate • Feb. 12, 2026
Ask any basketball coach you know and they’ll give you an earful about the attrition of whole-court vision and underappreciated talents like moving without the ball.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
Border Patrol cops loitered on the sidewalks of a popular nightlife strip, where they got an earful from a passerby in a pink pointelle shirt.
From Slate • Aug. 13, 2025
I was about to get an earful on the book’s background and a postage-paid primer on my own writing life.
From Salon • Feb. 9, 2025
Once, after my dad caught an earful of their conversation, he rushed over to the phone base and stabbed the button down with his finger to disconnect the call.
From "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henríquez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
