Dictionary

flea in one's ear en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) A stinging rebuke or rebuff.
   • For when she got home her Instructress severe / Dismissed her to bed with a Flea in her Ear. 2012, Hannah Jane Locker-Lampson, A Selection From the Works of Frederick Locker, →ISBN:
   • Thus spoke the pert hussy and view'd me all round With an eye of disdain and thrice spit on the ground; Look'd proud of her charms, with an insolent sneer, And sent me away with a flea in my ear. 1810, The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper:
   • "I came away with two fleas in each ear," Mark recalled cheerfully, ten years later. 1979, Dervla Murphy, Wheels Within Wheels:
   • As for him getting a flea in his ear, when I had finished with him he did not have an ear left into which a flea could have been deposited. 2010, Don Oslear, Wisden's The Laws Of Cricket, →ISBN:
   • If he bothers me again, I'll send him home with a flea in his ear.

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