Idiom meaning, usage examples, facts

1. The boss walked into the coffee room where we were chatting and asked us to lend him an ear He wanted us to listen to what he had to say.
2. All the children pulled on the teacher’s skirt, begging to hear the news. She finally told them that if they gave her an ear, she would tell them what they wanted to hear.

Dating from at least the 1600s, this phrase has consistently meant to listen to or ask someone to listen. It became especially popular after William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar , in which Mark Antony says to a noisy crowd, ‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears’ in order to get them to quiet down and listen.