eaves-dropper

Nay, I will not be an eaves-dropper: my child you do not fear this person now?

Should he not appear to them in the despicable light of an eaves-dropper?

This seat was in a little recess or blind window, where two persons might freely converse without fear of an eaves-dropper.

And Horace Townsend, in stopping to play the eaves-dropper, at least partially illustrated the saying.

I did not wish to be an eaves-dropper, and at the same time I scarcely liked suddenly to rush unnoticed into the room.