make a pig's ear of en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Meanings
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(UK, idiomatic, transitive) To do badly; to make a mess of.
Instead, he had lain awake for hours, knowing he'd made a pig's ear of everything, and trying to think of a way to sort things out.
2003, Kate Walker, Desert Affair, →ISBN, page 140:England responded with goals of their own from Theo Walcott and Danny Welbeck and, on the balance of play, deserved the victory. Yet there were long spells when they threatened to make a pig's ear of it.
14 August 2013, Daniel Taylor, “Rickie Lambert's debut goal gives England victory over Scotland”, in The Guardian:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| made a pig's ear of | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| made a pig's ear of | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| making a pig's ear of | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| makes a pig's ear of | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic |
Relateds
make a silk purse of a sow's ear and variants
Translations (3)
de Scheiße bauen (to make a mess of) · de vermasseln (to make a mess of) · de Mist verzapfen (to make a mess of)