overhear

She said it’s more irritating, for instance, to overhear social-media videos than to witness a face-to-face conversation at the same volume, because “personal listening devices are supposed to be personal.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

Further along the footpath around the old dock, I overhear an American accent.

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2025

One can opt to be a relatively passive observer trying to overhear conversations and uncover the various storylines.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2025

I regularly overhear other birders marveling over the flashy warblers in breeding plumage, while overlooking other comparatively less-flashy birds like vireos and sparrows.

From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2025

Scipio waved the others toward him and lowered his voice, as if he was afraid that one of the bystanders could overhear what he was about to say.

From "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funke

One snowy night, he has a breakthrough: Batter stumbles upon the Peck & Peck building where he overhears that the company has an open position.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

When he overhears Jonathan describing him as having, “too much money and no taste,” Ripley feels slighted, which is why he gets Jonathan involved in doing Reeves’ dirty work.

From Salon ● Apr. 5, 2024

Another time she gets caught short when hill walking and with her trousers still around her ankles overhears one of her children tell a passer-by that "mummy is off having a wee".

From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2024

All seems idyllic — until the day Beth, approaching her husband and brother-in-law in a store, overhears Don saying that he doesn’t like her new novel at all, but he can’t tell her.

From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2023

Mama overhears, reminding me once again how sharp that woman’s hearing is.

From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan

To come up with story ideas, you should cultivate a writer’s mindset and convert all of life—the children in your elementary school, the conversation you overheard in a coffee shop—into potential material.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2026

He knew the campaign was paying off when he overheard MPs in a parliamentary bar complaining about the flood of letters they were receiving on the subject.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

Jackson said the officer will fight the charge and plead not guilty, and that the law only applies where the speakers have a reasonable expectation that what they say would not be overheard or recorded.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

She only learned about the reintroduction plan after asking rangers about discussions she had overheard.

From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026

Ralph was tired of skulking about, hiding in mittens and boots, scrounging glue-flavored seeds from fourth-grade mosaics, and eating sugar, which he had overheard children say rotted teeth.

From "Ralph S. Mouse" by Beverly Cleary

“From what I understand, it was a private engagement,” the hotel lobby spy told the outlet after allegedly overhearing the couple discussing their betrothal.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026

The court heard that Morgan had been deemed a "high risk to others and to himself" after overhearing conversations that took place since he has been in custody.

From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2026

“After overhearing a passionate ideological dispute around her own kitchen table between the future Nobel laureate for literature and his radical friends from the University of Chicago, she muttered: ‘Smart, smart, smart.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025

“Kids are often being exposed to these topics anyway, through their peers, the media and overhearing conversations,” said Wenner Moyer.

From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2024

Once I had seen my mother shudder on overhearing him expound to a group of ladies on the mating posture of order Opiliones, or daddy longlegs.

From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly