little pitchers have large ears
Preserved but no longer current.
See PITCHER. Mine ears hast thou bored. Thou hast accepted me as thy bond-slave for life. If a Hebrew servant declined to go free after six years* service, the master was to bore his ear with an awl, in token of his voluntary servi- tude for life (Exod. xxi, 6).
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 “little pitchers have large ears” mean?
See PITCHER. Mine ears hast thou bored. Thou hast accepted me as thy bond-slave for life. If a Hebrew servant declined to go free after six years* service, the master was to bore his ear with an awl, in token of his voluntary servi- tude for life (Exod. xxi, 6).
Is “little pitchers have large ears” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.