EAVESDROP (eavesdropped, eavesdropping)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: eavesdropped    , eavesdropping   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does eavesdrop mean? 

• EAVESDROP (verb)
  The verb EAVESDROP has 1 sense:

1. listen without the speaker's knowledge

  Familiarity information: EAVESDROP used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EAVESDROP (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they eavesdrop    ... he / she / it eavesdrops   
Past simple: eavesdropped   
Past participle: eavesdropped   
-ing form: eavesdropping   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Listen without the speaker's knowledge

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

eavesdrop; listen in

Context example:

the jealous man was eavesdropping on his wife's conversations

Hypernyms (to "eavesdrop" is one way to...):

listen (hear with intention)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "eavesdrop"):

bug; intercept; tap; wiretap (tap a telephone or telegraph wire to get information)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

eavesdropper (a secret listener to private conversations)

 Context examples 

Perhaps, since the matters which we have to discuss will affect you personally in a very intimate fashion, it is as well that we should talk where there can be no eavesdropping.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For what may be the first time, NOAA and partner scientists eavesdropped on the deepest part of the world’s ocean and instead of finding a sea of silence, discovered a cacophony of sounds both natural and caused by humans.

(Seven miles deep, the ocean is still a noisy place, NOAA)