Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Eavesdrop |
EavesdropVerb1. Listen without the speaker's knowledge. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "eavesdrop" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1884. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | EAVESDROP, v.i. Secretly to overhear a catalogue of the crimes and vices of another or yourself. A lady with one of her ears applied To an open keyhole heard, inside, Two female gossips in converse free -- The subject engaging them was she. "I think," said one, "and my husband thinks That she's a prying, inquisitive minx!" As soon as no more of it she could hear The lady, indignant, removed her ear. "I will not stay," she said, with a pout, "To hear my character lied about!" Gopete Sherany. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: EavesdropSynonym: listen in (v). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Eavesdrop |
| English words defined with "eavesdrop": Eavedrop, Evesdrop. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "eavesdrop": Eavedrop. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | A good butler does not eavesdrop he discreetly overhears (Birds of Prey; writing credit: Adam Armus; Nora Kay Foster) I did not send the demon after her, he used my body to eavesdrop in on our conversation (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Dennis Miller | You notice the one group that isn't complaining about the new government power to eavesdrop on attorney-client conversations is the lawyers. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Eavesdrop" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 90.91% of the time. "Eavesdrop" is used about 44 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 90.91% | 40 | 54,274 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 6.82% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Noun (singular) | 2.27% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 44 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "eavesdrop": eavesdrop on ♦ eavesdrop on smb.. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
eavesdrop | 11 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "eavesdrop"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | përgjoj (peek, peep, spy, watch). (various references) | |
Arabic | تجسس (espionage, rat, sing, snoop, snooping, spy, spying), إسترق, إختلس السمع. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | подслушване (listening in), подслушвам (overhear). (various references) | |
Chinese | 窃听 (Eavesdropping, wiretap), 竊聽 (wiretap). (various references) | |
Czech | tajnì poslouchat, poslouchat za dvìřmi. (various references) | |
Dutch | afluisteren (bug, listen in, monitor, tap). (various references) | |
Esperanto | subaŭskulti, kaŝaŭskulti (bug, listen in, monitor, tap). (various references) | |
Farsi | استراق سمع کردن (Overhear, Wiretap). (various references) | |
Finnish | kuunnella (attend, listen, sit in, tap). (various references) | |
French | écouter des conversation privées, écouter de façon indiscrète. (various references) | |
Frisian | ôfharkje (bug, listen in, monitor, tap). (various references) | |
German | lauschen (list, listen, to eavesdrop, to listen to). (various references) | |
Greek | κρυφακούω, ωτακουστώ (overhear). (various references) | |
Hebrew | ל"אזין בסתר, לצותת (bug, listen in, tap, tap the wires). (various references) | |
Hungarian | ereszalja, kihallgat (interrogate, listen in, overhear, overheard, to debrief, to grill, to interrogate, to overhear, to question). (various references) | |
Italian | origliare (bug, listen in, monitor, overhear, tap). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 立ち聞き . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | たちぎき. (various references) | |
Manx | eaishtagh gyn yss, cooyl-eaishtagh. (various references) | |
Norwegian | smuglytte. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eavesdropay.(various references) | |
Polish | podsłuchać. (various references) | |
Portuguese | escutar casualmente (overhear), ouvirsecretamente, ouvir por acaso (overhear). (various references) | |
Romanian | trage cu urechea (listen, lurk), asculta la uşã. (various references) | |
Russian | подслушивать (eavesdropped, overhear). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | prisluškivati (listen in, monitor, tap), prisluškivanje (listening in). (various references) | |
Spanish | escuchar indiscretamente, escuchar a escondidas, orejar. (various references) | |
Swedish | tjuvlyssna (listen in on, listen in to). (various references) | |
Thai | ลอบฟัง (eavesdrop on). (various references) | |
Turkish | kulak misafiri olmak (overhear), kulak kabartmak (cock one's ears, incline one's ear to smb., overhear, prick up one's ears), gizlice dinlemek (spy on, spy on smb., spy upon). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | капіж, капання, підслуховувати (listen in, overhear). (various references) | |
Welsh | clustfeinio (prick up the ears). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "eavesdrop": eavesdropped, eavesdropper, eavesdroppers, eavesdropping, eavesdrops. (additional references) | |
| |
"Eavesdrop" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: eavsdrop. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "eavesdrop" (pronounced ē"vzdrÄ'p) |
| 4 | -d r Ä' p | backdrop, raindrop. |
| 3 | -r Ä' p | Malaprop, turboprop. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-e-e-o-p-r-s-v" | |
-1 letter: depraves, pervades. | |
-2 letters: adverse, deposer, deprave, evaders, oversad, oversea, pervade, repaved, repaves, reposed, respade, savored, speared, vapored. | |
-3 letters: adores, averse, deaves, depose, dopers, drapes, droves, epodes, erased, erodes, evader, evades, operas, oreads, overed, padres, pardee, pareos, pareve, parsed, parvos, paveed, pavers, pedros, pesade, prosed, proved, proves, rasped, reaped, reaved, reaves, redoes, repave, repose. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-e-e-o-p-r-s-v" | |
+1 letter: eavesdrops, overpassed, overpedals, overspread, paloverdes. | |
+2 letters: overexpands, overpraised, overspreads. | |
+3 letters: eavesdropped, eavesdropper, overpersuade. | |
+4 letters: eavesdroppers, eavesdropping, overpersuaded, overpersuades, overspreading, superovulated, videographers, videographies. | |
+5 letters: overemphasized, overpersuading, overspeculated. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Quotations: Spoken 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
