pitcher

little pitchers have big ears

Children hear everything, especially when you least expect them to. The "ear" of a water pitcher is the handle. Please watch what you say around the kids—little pitchers have big ears, you know. A: "Where did little Susie learn that inappropriate word?" B: "Who knows. Little pitchers have big ears."
See also: big, ear, have, little, pitcher

little pitchers have long ears

Children hear everything, especially when you least expect them to. The "ear" of a water pitcher is the handle. Please watch what you say around the kids—little pitchers have long ears, you know. A: "Where did little Susie learn that inappropriate word?" B: "Who knows. Little pitchers have long ears."
See also: ear, have, little, long, pitcher

the pitcher will go to the well once too often

proverb A period of good luck will eventually end. I know that being on a winning streak is very exciting, but just remember that the pitcher will go to the well once too often. I'm sure he will continue to break the law until he gets caught. The pitcher will go to the well once too often.
See also: go, often, once, pitcher, well, will
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

Little pitchers have big ears.

Prov. Children like to listen to adult conversations and can understand a lot of what they hear. (Used to warn another adult not to talk about something because there is a child present.) I started to tell Mary about the date I had on Saturday, but she interrupted me, saying, "Little pitchers have big ears," and looked pointedly at her six-year-old daughter, who was in the room with us.
See also: big, ear, have, little, pitcher
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

little pitchers have big ears

Young children often overhear something they should not. For example, Don't use any swear words around Brian-little pitchers have big ears. This metaphoric expression, which likens the curved handle of a pitcher to the human ear, was already in John Heywood's proverb collection of 1546.
See also: big, ear, have, little, pitcher
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

little pitchers have big ears

Small children may overhear what they should not. This metaphor, which likens the human ear to the pitcher’s handle, was already stated in one of John Heywood’s proverbs (1546): “Avoyd your children, small pitchers have wide eares.” It was repeated several times by Shakespeare and was surely a cliché by the time Dickens referred to it in Bleak House (1853): “Charley verified the adage about little pitchers, I am sure.”
See also: big, ear, have, little, pitcher
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • a box on the ear
  • smile from ear to ear
  • beam/grin/smile from ear to ear
  • grin from ear to ear
  • around (one's) ears
  • pour honey into (one's) ear
  • have (one's) ear
  • have somebody's ear
  • have someone's ear
  • have the ear of someone
References in periodicals archive
The defendants denied Pitcher's allegation that she was fired for engaging in a protected activity.
Former Centene employee awarded $2.1M in damages
The farm yard manure was filled in each pit 30 cm depth, after which the pitchers were placed in centre of each pit, the left-over space in each pit was then filled with (farm yard manure and soil) from neck to bottom of each pitcher.
Impact of Different Shapes of Pitchers on Water Saving and Water Use Efficiency of Ridge-gourd in Semi Arid Region of Pakistan
In the ad having the pitcher in a Bears' uniform and phrases about their memories of him, those fans said they retired his uniform number 40 and will miss him a lot.
Bears' sweetheart Nippert joins KT Wiz
The term pitcher plant actually includes several different species of plants that all share the pitcher-shaped traps.
Those Carnivorous Pitcher Plants!
Pitching Motion The rule in 1845 stated that the pitcher threw underhand and had to keep his wrist stiff.
The historical evolution of the designated hitter rule
Thermal and hydric aspects of environmental heterogeneity in the pitcher plant mosquito.
Size matters: purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) pitcher size influences the presence of Aedes albopictus larvae
The whole process builds kinetic energy from the pitcher's legs, hips, and back up to his shoulder.
The perfect pitch: why are more pitchers throwing faster than ever before?
Winning pitcher (Jim Clancy (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/clancji01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-bizofbaseball.com)).
DBacks and Phillies Play Fourth-Longest MLB Game of All-Time
Darvish ranks first in strikeouts among Major League Baseball's 447 active pitchers with 72 strikeouts so far.
Strikeout king now strikeout emperor
This spring, Starbucks introduces an innovative new milk steaming pitcher that enables Starbucks highly-trained baristas to consistently steam milk with a velvety texture and help ensure that high-quality espresso beverages are handcrafted perfectly every time.
Starbucks new milk steaming pitcher
The 3X Pitching Velocity Program first defines this entire approach and then uses a throwing program which consists of drills to train the pitcher how to uses these mechanics in their pitching delivery.
Baseball Pitching Instruction and Velocity Training Program
New York Yankees relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain has a torn elbow ligament and will likely undergo Tommy John surgery, taking him off the roster for a year.
Tommy John surgery likely for Yankees' Joba Chamberlain
It's a professional pitcher's arm hurling a baseball toward home plate.
The perfect pitch
Ben Pitcher, The Politics Of Multiculturalism: Race and Racism in Contemporary Britain, Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2009, 224pp, 50 [pounds sterling] hardback
Multicultural nationalism
One of the small scale subsurface irrigation methods viable for arid areas is the pitcher irrigation method which has so far been ignored by most of the national and international developmental programmes.
Low-cost irrigation for arid regions