eavesdrops (on)

present tense third-person singular of eavesdrop (on)
as in listens in (on)
to listen to (another in private conversation) a nosy traveler who likes to eavesdrop on his fellow airline passengers

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for eavesdrops (on)
Verb
  • Any attempt to relieve the pressure on prisons shifts onto the probation service, which monitors offenders serving their sentence in the community.
    — Issy Ronald, CNN Money, 30 Sep. 2026
  • Business owners, technology leaders and risk teams need clarity about who owns the process, who determines acceptable risk, who monitors performance and who has the authority to intervene.
    — Jayasri Ranganathan, Forbes.com, 29 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Late one night, Clark spies what appears to be a sliver of light coming through a crack in the wall of the store’s basement.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 14 June 2026
  • In Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s The Finding of Moses, a dog spies a young girl whose presence unlocks the painting’s meaning.
    — Boris Kachka, The Atlantic, 5 June 2026
Verb
  • Every audience hears about the tweets from Michigan’s William Lawrence, condemning the nuclear family, and New York’s Darializa Avila Chevalier, about how July 4 should be about the liberation of Palestine and Puerto Rico.
    — David Weigel, semafor.com, 2 Oct. 2026
  • In the song’s closing moments, the Edge hears something older than country music in Parton’s voice.
    — Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 28 Sep. 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Eavesdrops (on).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/eavesdrops%20%28on%29. Accessed 10 Oct. 2026.

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