put a bug in someone's ear

Idioms

Give someone a hint about something, as in Janet put a bug in her husband's ear about getting the children a dog for Christmas. This idiom presumably likens the buzzing about of an insect to a hint, although the exact analogy is not clear. [c. 1900]

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023