Sometimes little children who listen to old people’s conversation hear and perceive things a lot than people expect them to

Etymology:

  • The inventor of this old saying imagined that on observing two-handled pitcher, the handles on both of its sides look like ears. So in this idiom, the little pitcher represents small children and they have big ears means, they are smart and sharp enough to hear and understand things that elder people often underestimate them to have known. So they can understand what elder sometimes cannot.
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Nowadays elder people avoid disclosing or discussing something important in front of kids because they thought that little pitchers have big ears.

Submitted on February 25, 2019

Additional definitions for 'Little Pitchers Have Big Ears':

little pitchers have big earsSmall children often overhear more of what is said than adults realize or desire.1844, Charlotte M. Yonge, Abbeychurch, ch. 2:Seeing me listening to something she was saying to Mamma, she turned round upon me with that odious proverb, "Little pitchers have long ears."1939, "Bedtime Bedlam," Time, 17 Apr.:A caution to U. S. parents, but a joy to radio merchandising, is the dread truth that little pitchers have big ears.2002, Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, ISBN 9780743455961, p. 185:I suppose he might say pushed or went woowoo, but took a shit is, I fear, very much in the ballpark (little pitchers have big ears, after all).
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Translation

Find a translation for the Little Pitchers Have Big Ears phrase in other languages:

kleine Krüge haben große Ohren

małe dzbany mają duże uszy

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    "Little Pitchers Have Big Ears." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/little-pitchers-have-big-ears_44835>.

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