flea in one's ear, a

An annoying hint or a stinging rebuke, as in He has a flea in his ear about their relationship, or If he doesn't bring the right equipment, I'll put a flea in his ear. This expression originated in French and has been used in English since the 1400s.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Lorinda	[ləu'rində]
Ulises	oo-LEE-ses	Spanish
Austyn	AWS-tin	English (Modern)
Olga	OL-gah (Russian), AWL-gah (Polish, German)	Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Latvian, Hungarian, Itali
Corey	['kəʊri]
Ciriaco	chee-ree-AH-ko (Italian), thee-ree-AH-ko (Spanish), see-ree-AH-ko (Latin American Spanish)	Italian, Spanish