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Glite Dictionary
to feel my ears burning

to feel my ears burning

1 8.8
A sudden sense that people are talking about you, often when your name is said
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : sentir que me están hablando
  • Do I feel my ears burning?

Examples

  • I could feel my ears burning when I overheard them say my name.

  • She glanced at me and I felt my ears burning as I realized they were discussing me.

  • Whenever I hear gossip, I can't help but feel my ears burning.

Synonyms

my ears are burning
vsto feel my ears burning
  • Informal
1 9.0

You feel that people are talking about you when you are not there

is used when your name is mentioned during a nearby conversation

Antonyms

unnoticed
57 2.5

Other people do not see or pay attention to it

ignored
1.6

People do not pay attention to a person or thing

Surface Forms

feel my ears burning infinitive
felt my ears burning past
felt my ears burning past participle
feeling my ears burning present participle
feels my ears burning third person singular

Morphology

feel + mine + ear + burning

The words 'feel', 'my', 'ears', and 'burning' only yield a literal physical sensation, while the conventional meaning 'someone is talking about you' is a cultural/idiomatic inference that cannot be predicted from the constituents. A B1 learner who knows the individual words but has not encountered the idiom would most likely interpret it literally rather than derive the social meaning.

Etymology

Feel my ears burning comes from an old belief that when people talk about you your ears feel hot, as if they are burning, and that strange feeling warns you someone is mentioning you. So, the phrase means 'to have the feeling that someone is talking about you', often used in a joking way.