ear to the ground

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

informed about the latest news or gossip

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

có thông tin về tin tức hoặc đồn đoán mới nhất

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: listening with one's ear on the ground
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

She keeps her ear to the ground for any new job openings

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

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 “ear to the ground” mean?

informed about the latest news or gossip Literally: listening with one's ear on the ground

Is “ear to the ground” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.