ears peeled

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Jan 24, 2010, at 4:41 PM, Jon Lighter wrote:
>
>
> Just this afternoon a friend promised he "would keep his ears peeled."

moderate number of hits on this and variants of it.  it's a natural
extension of keep/have eyes [or an eye] peeled/skinned (for X) 'remain/
be alert (for X)', which has a considerable history (also: skin one's
eyes (for X), around from mid-19th century).  these "peel/skin eyes"
idioms, conveying 'be alert by seeing', are opaque -- in fact, i don't
understand the sense development, though i assume it's been looked at
-- and so would almost inevitably lead to an extension to hearing.

arnold

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