Meaning of set by the ears | Babel Free

Definitions

To make (a person or persons) argue; to set quarrelling.

idiomatic, transitive

Examples

“[The patrimony of the King's children] was not to be recovered but by […] a bloody and uncertain war, and setting all Christendom together by the ears.”

“Then she used to carry tales and stories from one to another, till she had set the whole neighbourhood together by the ears; […]”

“In England a king hath little more to do than to make war and give away places; which in plain terms, is to impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears.”

“never did any man possess in so extraordinary a degree the faculty of setting people by the ears, of provoking dissension, and of creating strife.”

“Servia will some day set Europe by the ears and bring about a universal war on the Continent, […]”

“Even the best-intentioned minister could set a parish by the ears, so a single-minded insistence on the elimination of a vice could make him a figure of terror rather than an approachable counsellor […].”

CEFR level