bend someone's ear
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to talk to someone at length, often about a problem
Literally: to bend a body part to reach the ear
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
I think some of the older managers and tenants have been bending his ear a bit about the problems of setting up catering.
It will bend your ears and explain what you are listening to.’
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “bend someone's ear” mean?
to talk to someone at length, often about a problem Literally: to bend a body part to reach the ear
Is “bend someone's ear” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.