within earshot

within earshot

Close enough to clearly hear what someone says or does. They didn't realize I was within earshot when they were discussing my performance in school. Let's step outside—I don't want to fight while they're within earshot.
See also: earshot, within
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

*within earshot (of something)

close enough to something to hear it. (*Typically: be ~; come ~; get ~; move ~.) As soon as I got within earshot of the music, I decided that I really didn't belong there.
See also: earshot, within
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

within ˈearshot (of somebody/something)

near enough to hear somebody/something or to be heard: As she came within earshot of the group, she heard her name mentioned.
See also: earshot, within
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • in earshot
  • come within earshot
  • earshot
  • in hearing distance
  • in/within hearing
  • move within earshot
  • out of earshot
  • motion (someone) to the side
  • motion aside
  • motion to one side
References in classic literature
He walks the poop darting gloomy glances, as though he wished to poison the sea, and snaps your head off savagely whenever you happen to blunder within earshot. And these vagaries are the harder to bear patiently, as becomes a man and an officer, because no sailor is really good-tempered during the first few days of a voyage.
But tarry ye behind in the borders of the forest, within earshot of my bugle call."
"What luck, Peter?" yelled Dan, as soon as Peter was within earshot.
So there we had to stay--my mother almost entirely exposed and both of us within earshot of the inn.
Foster was within earshot; she knew exactly what to do with him if anything happened.
"If the knaves lie within earshot, they will say there are two non-compossers instead of one!
The corner was a retired one, and there was no one within earshot.
He sat within earshot, milking the cows by the light of a lantern, which I seized unceremoniously, and, calling out that I would send it back on the morrow, rushed to the nearest postern.
The sound of drumming and trumpeting came from the Albany Street Barracks, and every church within earshot was hard at work killing sleep with a vehement disorderly tocsin.
Often I had to lose sight of it on account of the tangled brush-wood, but I was always within earshot of its tinkle and splash.
When, however, he got within earshot, he began to hear the surf thundering up against the rocks, for the swell still broke against them with a terrific roar.
Her tongue was not less keen than her eye, and, whenever a damsel came within earshot, seemed to take up an unfinished lecture, as a barrel-organ takes up a tune, precisely at the point where it had left off.
Then they knocked up a little place for him at the bottom of the garden, about quarter of a mile from the house, and made him take the machine down there when he wanted to work it; and sometimes a visitor would come to the house who knew nothing of the matter, and they would forget to tell him all about it, and caution him, and he would go out for a stroll round the garden and suddenly get within earshot of those bagpipes, without being prepared for it, or knowing what it was.
When he came within earshot of the king, he gave him the royal salute of Bayete, and fell upon his hands and knees, crawling towards him, and konzaed to the king, praising him as he came.
Before he came within earshot, Father Brown had added quite composedly, "Why does he really hide the secret of what he does with the purple wig?