Overhear
[əʊvə'hɪə] or [,ovɚ'hɪr]
Definition
(v. t.) To hear more of (anything) than was intended to be heard; to hear by accident or artifice.
(v. t.) To hear again.
Typist: Nicholas
Definition
v.t. to hear what was not intended to be heard: to hear by accident: (Shak.) to hear over again.
Inputed by Errol
Examples
- I suppose nobody can overhear us? Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Have we a right to repeat or to overhear her prayers? William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Daniel Doyce said perhaps he hadn't touched it, but Mr Meagles rather declined to overhear the remark. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- The group stopped beneath my hiding place and I could plainly overhear their every word. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- Seats tolerably in the shade were found; and now Emma was obliged to overhear what Mrs. Elton and Jane Fairfax were talking of. Jane Austen. Emma.
- You did not overhear what they said? Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- Cassy placed her ear at the knot-hole; and, as the morning air blew directly towards the house, she could overhear a good deal of the conversation. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- It was very well they did--to judge from the fragments of conversation which Margaret overheard. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- It was the man; the man he had followed in company with the girl, and whom he had overheard talking to Miss Wade. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- I wish you could have overheard her tribute of praise; I wish you could have seen her countenance, when she said that you _should_ be Henry's wife. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- Don't undervalue your fighting powers, Maurice, said the Demarch, who overheard this remark; your tussle with Alcibiades was no light one. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Mr. Weller was overheard by his son to murmur something relative to making a vessel's nose bleed; but Mr. Stiggins heard him not. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- I thought I overheard Miss Havisham answer,--only it seemed so unlikely,--Well? Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- But I have stolen away from those who would surely murder me, if they knew I had been here, to tell you what I have overheard. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- You will excuse me, said Holmes blandly, but I could not help overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- Legree could not help overhearing this whispering; and it was all the more exciting to him, from the pains that were taken to conceal it from him. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- One may imagine her suffering on overhearing fragments of this sort of conversation. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- Whether he were overhearing too, she could not determine. Jane Austen. Emma.
- That five minutes of overhearing furnished Eustacia with visions enough to fill the whole blank afternoon. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- I discovered this, from overhearing the lady in the bow-window say to the guard, 'Take care of that child, George, or he'll burst! Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
Checker: Sondra