Meaning
Heard but instantly forgotten or entirely ignored. Said of advice, instructions, or information that makes no lasting impression on the listener, often with a note of frustration at their failure to absorb or act on what they were told. Informal; usually a fond or exasperated comment on someone's inattention rather than a serious accusation. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The image of sound passing straight through the head is medieval. The Online Etymology Dictionary quotes an English sermon of around 1250 describing hearers who let God's word go in at the one ear and out at the other, and the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms dates the expression to the late 1300s. It was established enough to be collected as a proverb in John Heywood's 1546 compilation, and it has remained a standard complaint about inattentive listeners ever since. The phrase is pure physical caricature rather than learned metaphor: the ears treated as holes in the head through which nothing sticks.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- go in one ear and out the other
- in at one ear and out at the other
- straight in one ear and out the other
- went in one ear and out the other
Usage Examples
- I have explained the recycling rules twice, but it goes in one ear and out the other.
- Her warnings about the icy bridge went in one ear and out the other until the car skidded.
- With tournament nerves, the coach's instructions seemed to pass in one ear and straight out the other.