Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Either of a pair of ear coverings often attached to an adjustable headband and worn to protect the ears especially against the cold.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A garment to keep the ears warm.
  • noun A garment or part worn over a single ear.
  • noun A sound-deadening cup or a pair of such cups worn over the ear or ears.
  • noun Attributive form of earmuffs.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun either of a pair of ear coverings (usually connected by a headband) that are worn to keep the ears warm in cold weather

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

ear +‎ muff

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Examples

  • In Illinois, a three-judge district court upheld Illinois '4th Congressional District-the famous "earmuff" district (see district top right above) - against a Shaw challenge, and the Supreme Court summarily affirmed that decision.

    Minority Vote Dilution Is Still Illegal 2000

  • Howard Leight isn't a hi-fi company—it specializes in industrial and consumer-grade hearing protection—so not surprisingly the Sync is essentially an earmuff crossed with a pair of headphones.

    Sounds Like Teen Spirit Michael Hsu 2011

  • Is there an electric earmuff out there that 1. amplifies ambient sounds, 2. shuts out gunfire, and 3. is small enough to be worn under a hat or a hood, not clank against your stock when you shoulder your weapon, etc.?

    Can You Hear Me Now? 2008

  • Is there an electric earmuff out there that 1. amplifies ambient sounds, 2. shuts out gunfire, and 3. is small enough to be worn under a hat or a hood, not clank against your stock when you shoulder your weapon, etc.?

    Can You Hear Me Now? 2008

  • Freedom comes from the man who dissed Oprah, complained that the Tony-winning musical Spring Awakening was a bastardization of the 1891 Frank Wedekind play (which Franzen himself had recently translated from the German), called book critic Michiko Kakutani "the stupidest person in New York," and claimed such affectations as writing in an earmuff-and-blindfold-equipped sensory-deprivation chamber.

    The Man We Knew Too Much 2010

  • Dennis Kucinich left politics to open a chain of big and tall earmuff stores.

    CNN Transcript Nov 30, 2008 2008

  • Dennis Kucinich left politics to open a chain of big and tall earmuff stores.

    CNN Transcript Nov 29, 2008 2008

  • Gordini USA, an Essex Junction, Vt., ski-glove maker, branched out into earmuff-headsets about 18 months ago.

    Hear Muffs 2008

  • After buying and testing five earmuff-headset combos, though, we saw that assumption turned upside-down.

    Hear Muffs 2008

  • Image: Courtesy David A. Greenwood 1858: Chester Greenwood, inventor of the earmuff, is born.

    Dec. 4, 1858: It Was Very Cold the Day Chester Greenwood Was Born 2007

Comments

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  • Earmuffs are 130 years old today! (Dec 1, 2007)

    December 2, 2007

  • Happy birthday deaaarrr muuuuffffffsss

    Happy birthday to you.

    December 2, 2007