Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Nautical A short line attaching an upper corner of a sail to the yard.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small rope attached to the cringle of a sail, by which it is bent or reefed. When attached to the headcringle for bending, it is called a head-earing; when attached to the reef-cringle, a reef-earing.
- n. The forming of ears of corn.
- n. A plowing of land. See ear.
Wiktionary
- n. nautical A line used to fasten the upper corners of a sail to the yard or gaff; also called head earing.
- n. archaic A ploughing of land.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A line used to fasten the upper corners of a sail to the yard or gaff; -- also called
head earing . - n. A line for hauling the reef cringle to the yard; -- also called
reef earing . - n. A line fastening the corners of an awning to the rigging or stanchions.
- n. Coming into ear, as corn.
- n. Archaic A plowing of land.
Etymologies
- Perhaps from ear1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The word earing is an obsolete Saxon term by which our translators have rendered the”
“One of the topmen, Tom Hansard, was at the weather yardarm, and had hold of the earing, which isn't a bit like those gold things our sisters wear in their ears, but is a long rope which helps to reef the sails.”
“My belief about clone hosts is the gods sold individuals on this "clone host rotation", compelling people to believe that "earing" was the way.”
“Unless you are a preditor hurting others because you think you're "earing", until the day you become a parent you were only hurting yourself.”
TONIGHT ON THE TERRORDOME: Lies and Truth about Afrikans in America
“It got on my nerves after a while 'earing' im being bumped on the floor every minute, or flung with 'is' ead into the fire-place.”
“earing," but the Revised Version "ploughing;" next in Ex. 34: 21 and Deut.”
“(Genesis 24: 22; Exodus 35: 22) "earing;" (Isaiah 3: 21; Ezekiel”
“For some reason, the cover or Tendor Morsels looks like a zombie version of the painting Girl with a Pearl earing.”
Book Cover Smackdown! Objects of Worship vs. Tender Morsels vs. Never Slow Dance With a Zombie
“It has that Vermeer "Girl with a pearl earing" pose with an edge.”
Book Cover Smackdown! Objects of Worship vs. Tender Morsels vs. Never Slow Dance With a Zombie
“It leaves those prone to dog-earing pages unable to whine that they keep losing their bookmarks and spares them from the wrath of aggravated bookworms.”
Turn Old Fridge Magnets Into Handy Magnetic Bookmarks | Lifehacker Australia
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘earing’.
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phrontistery - e
from phrontistery.info
eagre, earing, earwig, easement, eau-de-nil, ebberman, ebeneous, ?boulement, ebriection, ?brillade, ebrious, ebullioscope and 616 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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Ear Ear!
Ear words and phrases. A companion piece to b-see--the-eyes-have-it-b and the-nose-knows.
earmuffs, earmuffed, earmark, earring, earful, earphones, earbuds, earloop, earworm, earpiece, earplugs, ear-rent and 109 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for earing.

chained_bear "Earings, in a ship, are certain small ropes, employed to fasten the upper corners of a sail to its respective yard; for which purpose one end of the earing is spliced to the cringle, fixed in that part of the sail, and the other end is passed six or seven times round the yardarm and through the cringle, thereby fastening the latter to the former.... Every reef on a yard has its respective earings, which are passed in the same manner...."
—Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 129
See also reef-earing.
Oct 13, 2008
yarb Citation on bunt. Sep 6, 2008
chained_bear "'You and I and the Doctor must scrub ourselves from clew to earing and put on our birthday suits.'"
—Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 257
"One of a number of small ropes that fasten the upper corner of a sail to the yard." —A Sea of Words, 184 Mar 5, 2008