TO SEND AWAY WITH A FLEA IN THE EAR. verb. phr. (common).—To dismiss with vigour and acerbity.
1854. Notes and Queries, 8 April, p. 322, col. 2. The luckless applicant is peremptorily dismissed with an imperative ‘flee!’ … or, facetiously, WITH A FLEE IN HIS EAR.
TO HAVE A FLEA IN THE EAR = (1) to fail in an enterprise; and (2) to receive a scolding, or annoying suggestion.
TO SIT ON A BAG OF FLEAS, verb. phr. (common).—To sit uncomfortably; ON A BAG OF HEN FLEAS = very uncomfortably indeed.
TO CATCH FLEAS FOR, verb. phr. (venery).—To be on terms of extreme intimacy: e.g., ‘I catch her fleas for her’ = She has nothing to refuse me. Cf., Shakespeare (Tempest, iii. 2.), ‘Yet a tailor might scratch her wheree’er she did itch.’
IN A FLEA’S LEAP, adv. phr. (old).—In next to no time; INSTANTER (q.v.).
