ear

noun

1. (countable)The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or auricle, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea.
2. (countable)The external part of the organ of hearing, the auricle.

   “Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.”

3. (countable, slang)A police informant.

   “No I'm not kidding, and if you don't give it to me I'll let it out that you’re an ear.”

4. The sense of hearing; the perception of sounds; skill or good taste in listening to music.

   “a good ear for music”

   “songs[…]not all ungrateful to thine ear”

5. The privilege of being kindly heard; favour; attention.

   “Dionysius[…]would give no ear to his suit.”

   “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”

   “They don’t know if they’re going to have a job in a week or a month. They don’t know if they can pay the rising prices. Instead of the paradise they expected July 1, their total existence is unsure. That some foreigners get beaten—nobody has an ear for that now.”

6. That which resembles in shape or position the ear of an animal; a prominence or projection on an object, usually for support or attachment; a lug; a handle; a foot-rest or step of a spade or a similar digging tool.

   “the ears of a tub, skillet, or dish; The ears of a boat are outside kneepieces near the bow.”

   “When they got as far as the little valley north of Oppenhagen - where the land-slip took place - he thought he sat between the ears of a bucket; but shortly this vanished also, and it was only then he really came to himself again.”

7. An acroterium.
8. A crossette.
9. A space to the left or right of a publication's front-page title, used for advertising, weather, etc.

   “In journalism, ears flank the title as boxes in the left and right top corners of a publication (generally a newspaper).”

10. A curled ridge in the crust of a loaf of bread where the dough was slashed before going into the oven and expands during baking.
11. The outer panels or flaps (protrusions) of a diaper upon which the fasteners are located, which are fastened around the wearer's waist.
12. A path whose endpoints may coincide but in which otherwise there are no repetitions of vertices or edges.
13. (countable)The fruiting body of a grain plant.

    “He is in the fields, harvesting ears of corn.”

14. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of Enterprise Application Archive, a file format used to package Java applications.
15. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of estimated average requirements.

verb

1. (humorous, transitive)To take in with the ears; to hear.

   “I eared her language.”

2. (transitive)To hold by the ears.

   “Sometimes, the helper eared the horse down; and sometimes he used a blindfold.”

   “The general technique was to rope the horse around the neck, and, while one or two men eared the horse down (held him by the ears), the rider saddled the animal and stepped above him.”

3. (intransitive)To put forth ears in growing; to form ears, as grain does.

   “This corn ears well.”

4. (archaic)To plough.

   “That power I have, discharge; and let them go To ear the land that hath some hope to grow, For I have none.”

   “And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley”