put a bug in someone's ear

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put a bug in someone's ear (third-person singular simple present puts a bug in someone's ear, present participle putting a bug in someone's ear, simple past and past participle put a bug in someone's ear)

1. (idiomatic, informal) To make a small suggestion or give a hint that causes the listener to act.
   • 2005, Gärard Genette, Essays in Aesthetics, page 13:

     All in all, the preparation of Seuils had put a nasty bug in my ear that was to bear all its fruit only ten years later—if bugs can bear fruit—and not without intermediate phases.

   • 2012, John Franceschina, Hermes Pan: The Man Who Danced with Fred Astaire, page 33:

     Ginger Rogers had definitely put a bug in Pan's ear about the movies for, after he was fired from Top Speed, Hermes decided to try his luck earning a living on the West Coast.

   • 2014, Laura Childs, Scorched Eggs:

     You've been putting a nasty bug in Sheriff Doogie's ear, haven't you? Or maybe he put a bug in your ear. I understand the two of you are thick as thieves.

   • 2014, Charles Lachman, Footsteps in the Snow, page 246:

     He was so insistent on this point that a friend she mentioned it to put a bug in her ear. Why not head home without calling, just to see what was really going on.