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.
    • 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[1]:
      Spotify won't miss tonight. Just fondling my earballs perfectly
    • 2025 January 7, @westeawest, Twitter‎[2]:
      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. ^ Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh (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) A linguistic survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland, Vol. II: The dialects of Skye and Ross-shire, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, page 18
  6. ^ Roy Wentworth (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]‎[3], 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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