earball

See also: ear ball

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From ear +‎ ball. Noun sense 1 and verb sense 1 is modeled after eyeball.

Pronunciation

Noun

earball (plural earballs)

  2. (humorous, usually in the plural) The ear. [from late 1840s]
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:ear
    to keep one's earballs open
    up to one's earballs
    My earballs hurt from listening to this.
    • 2010 October 28, Charlie Day & Rob McElhenney, “Who Got Dee Pregnant?” (10:50 from the start), in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia‎[1], season 6, episode 7, spoken by Artemis Dubois (Artemis Pebdani):
      “All right, let's get back to Halloween. Anything else that happened that night-- like Deandra getting pregnant?” “Oh, well, that makes sense. Mac slept with her at the party.” “What?” “What are you talking about?” “I'm talking about the sounds of hot, passionate lovemaking... that was coming from the bathroom that I had heard with my own two ear-balls.”
    • 2011 April 21, Adam Reed, “Double Trouble” (1:52 from the start), in Archer‎[2], season 2, episode 13, spoken by Cheryl Tunt (Judy Greer):
      “Ha!” “Oh for-- why doesn't everybody just come in here?” “It's O.K., we can hear from out here!” “With our earballs!”
    • 2023 September 25, Deviant Ollam, 6:29 from the start, in Deviant's Travel Bag Breakdown (video), YouTube:
      I will occasionally put these [earbuds] in. We've talked occasionally on the channel about my hearing problems, and we'll do another video about protecting your earballs and such […]
    • 2023 December 26, @Clippers_steve, Twitter‎[3]:
      Spotify won't miss tonight. Just fondling my earballs perfectly
    • 2025 January 7, @westeawest, Twitter‎[4]:
      Is explode a transitive verb? It sounds weird to my earballs.
  3. The act or an instance of listening.
  4. (acupuncture) A small ball kept in position in the ear and pressed when needed to relieve stress. [from late 2000s]

Verb

earball (third-person singular simple present earballs, present participle earballing, simple past and past participle earballed)

  2. (transitive) To listen, especially to check.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:listen

Further reading

Anagrams

Irish

Noun

earball m (genitive singular earbaill, nominative plural earbaill)

  1. alternative form of eireaball

Declension

Declension of earball (first declension)
bare forms
singular plural
nominative earball earbaill
vocative a earbaill a earballa
genitive earbaill earball
dative earball earbaill
forms with the definite article
singular plural
nominative an t-earball na hearbaill
genitive an earbaill na n-earball
dative leis an earball
don earball 		leis na hearbaill

Mutation

Mutated forms of earball
radical eclipsis with h-prothesis with t-prothesis
earball n-earball hearball t-earball

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

Scottish Gaelic

Alternative forms

  • earaball, iorball, urball
  • (metathesised) ealabar, ulabar

Etymology

From Old Irish erball.[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

earball m (genitive singular earbaill, plural earbaill)

  1. a tail
    earball an eich ― paddock-pipe, horsetail
    bun an earbaill ― the rump
    earball sguabach ― a bushy tail
  2. (informal, humorous) train of a dress

Derived terms

  • earball an eich (“horsetail”)
  • earball na misge (“hangover”)

Mutation

Mutation of earball
radical eclipsis with h-prothesis with t-prothesis
earball n-earball h-earball t-earball

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Scottish Gaelic.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

  1. ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “erball”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
  2. ^ Oftedal, M. (1956), A linguistic survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland, Vol. III: The Gaelic of Leurbost, Isle of Lewis, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
  3. ^ Borgstrøm, Carl Hj. (1937), The dialect of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
  4. ^ Ó Maolalaigh, Roibeard (2008), “'Bochanan modhail foghlaimte': Tiree Gaelic, lexicology and Glasgow's historical dictionary of Scottish Gaelic”, in Scottish Gaelic Studies, volume 24, Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen, →ISSN, pages 473-523
  5. ^ Borgstrøm, Carl Hj. (1941), “The dialects of Skye and Ross-shire”, in A linguistic survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland, volume II, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, page 18
  6. ^ Wentworth, Roy (2003), Gaelic Words and Phrases From Wester Ross / Faclan is Abairtean à Ros an Iar, Inverness: CLÀR, →ISBN

Further reading

  • Edward Dwelly (1911), “earball”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎[5], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
  • MacLennan, Malcolm (1925), A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Edinburgh: J. Grant, →OCLC
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