Definition
To make (a person or persons) argue; to set quarrelling.
In Context
- "[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 […]."
See Also
- by the ears