ears

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of ear.

   The dog's ears perked up at the sound of the doorbell.

   Cold weather can make your ears sting within minutes.

   Note

   The plural serves every sense of the singular, not only the organ of hearing. Handles, lugs and the foot-rests on a spade are ears too, and in slang police informants are ears as well. Context decides whether ears are anatomy, hardware or people. The same spelling is also the present tense of the verb, and only the grammar of the sentence tells the two apart.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of ear.

   Barley usually ears a few weeks after the first warm spell.

   Once the wheat ears, the farmers start watching for hail.

   Note

   Several quite different verbs sit behind this one form, and the construction sorts them out. With a field or soil as its object, it is the archaic word for plowing, as when a farmer ears his meadow. With a sound as its object, it is a humorous way of saying hears. Said of grain, with no object, it means the plant is putting forth ears. Out of context, the form reads first as the plural noun.

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