Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In zoology, a valvular external cutaneous ear which can be shut down upon the auditory opening.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An imaginary fold of skin that would allow the ear to be closed as the eye can be.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

ear +‎ lid

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Examples

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Comments

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  • The antidote for earworm.

    "The response is not only emotional but involuntary. It's not just that we don't have earlids to shut out unwanted sounds. Once a word is seen or heard, we are incapable of treating it as a squiggle or noise; we reflexively look it up in memory and respond to its meaning, including its connotation."

    --What the F***? Why We Curse article by Steven Pinker in The New Republic. See chained_bear's list.

    August 21, 2008