tirer les oreilles
\ti.ʁe lɛ.z‿ɔ.ʁɛj\
The verdict
“tirer les oreilles” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Infliger une correction, faire de vifs reproches.
Corpus desk
Index FR-tirer-les-oreilles · tirer les oreilles · French
tirer les oreilles · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tirer les oreilles |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ti.ʁe lɛ.z‿ɔ.ʁɛj\ |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « tirer les oreilles » en français
Rare enough to double-check
tirer les oreilles is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \ti.ʁe lɛ.z‿ɔ.ʁɛj\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
tirer les oreilles doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is tirer les oreilles, spelled T-I-R-E-R- -L-E-S- -O-R-E-I-L-L-E-S.
Definition
- 1Infliger une correction, faire de vifs reproches.
- 2Corriger physiquement en tirant l’oreille.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how tirer les oreilles appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Catulle Mendès, le cheveu en bataille, parcourait les corridors, déclarant qu’il tirerait les oreilles et le nez au misérable osant nier que ce fût là le chef-d’œuvre unique, la merveille des merveilles de la scène française.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.