Jenkins's Ear
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
The name given to an incident that helped largely to bring about the war between England and Spain in 1739 that eventually developed into the War of the
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Jenkins's Ear” mean?
The name given to an incident that helped largely to bring about the war between England and Spain in 1739 that eventually developed into the War of the
Is “Jenkins's Ear” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.