Library / English Dictionary

EAVESDROP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: eavesdropped    , eavesdropping   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Listen without the speaker's knowledge

Example:

the jealous man was eavesdropping on his wife's conversations

Synonyms:

eavesdrop; listen in

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

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)

Credits