prick up
Raise to hear
To prick up is what ears do when attention sharpens—they rise or point forward.
Dogs prick up their ears at sounds; humans do so figuratively when something catches their interest: She pricked up her ears at the mention of a promotion.
The phrase nearly always appears with ears.
alertness
Active mental awareness
- attentivenessConcentrated awareness of surroundings
- earsAuditory organs, paired
- listenPerceive sound attentively
hear · awareness · alerting · curiosity · interest · receptive · watchfulness · vigilance · keenness · sensitivity
attentional state
prick uptune out
Deliberately stop attending
zone out · switch off · ignore · glaze over · disengage
prick, pricks, pricked, pricking, pricker, prickle, prickly, prickliness, upping