Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Listen

Lis′ten (lĭs′'n), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Listened (-'nd); p. pr. & vb. n. Listening.] [OE. listnen, listen, lustnen, lusten, AS. hlystan; akin to hlyst hearing, OS. hlust, Icel. hlusta to listen, hlust ear, AS. hlosnian to wait in suspense, OHG. hlosēn to listen, Gr. κλύειν, and E. loud. √41. See Loud, and cf. List to listen.] 1. To give close attention with the purpose of hearing; to give ear; to hearken; to attend.

When we have occasion to listen, and give a more particular attention to some sound, the tympanum is drawn to a more than ordinary tension. Holder.

2. To give heed; to yield to advice; to follow admonition; to obey.

Listen to me, and by me be ruled. Tennyson.

To listen after, to take an interest in. [Obs.]

Soldiers note forts, armories, and magazines; scholars listen after libraries, disputations, and professors. Fuller.

Syn. — To attend; hearken. See Attend.

Lis′ten, v. t. To attend to. [Obs.] Shak.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.