earball en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈɪə.bɔːl/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˈɪəɹ.bɔl/ (General-American)
- /ˈɪəɹ.bɑl/ (cot-caught-merger)
- (General-American) audio
Etymology
From ear + ball. Noun sense 1 and the verb are modeled after eyeball.
Meanings
-
(humorous, plural-normally) The ear.
“All right, let's get back to Halloween. Anything else that happened that night-- like Deandra getting pregnant?” “Oh, well, that makes sense. Mac slept with her at the party.” “What?” “What are you talking about?” “I'm talking about the sounds of hot, passionate lovemaking... that was coming from the bathroom that I had heard with my own two ear-balls.”
2010 October 28, Charlie Day & Rob McElhenney, “Who Got Dee Pregnant?” (10:50 from the start), in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, season 6, episode 7, spoken by Artemis Dubois (Artemis Pebdani):to keep one's earballs open
Is explode a transitive verb? It sounds weird to my earballs.
2025 January 7, @westeawest, Twitter:Spotify won't miss tonight. Just fondling my earballs perfectly
2023 December 26, @Clippers_steve, Twitter:My earballs hurt from listening to this.
“Ha!” “Oh for-- why doesn't everybody just come in here?” “It's O.K., we can hear from out here!” “With our earballs!”
2011 April 21, Adam Reed, “Double Trouble” (1:52 from the start), in Archer, season 2, episode 13, spoken by Cheryl Tunt (Judy Greer):I will occasionally put these [earbuds] in. We've talked occasionally on the channel about my hearing problems, and we'll do another video about protecting your earballs and such […]
2023 September 25, Deviant Ollam, 6:29 from the start, in Deviant's Travel Bag Breakdown (video), YouTube:up to one's earballs
- The act or an instance of listening.
- A small ball kept in position in the ear and pressed when needed to relieve stress.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ear ball | alternative | lexicographic | |
| earballs | Number=Plur | lexicographic |