eavesdropping

Etymology

From eavesdrop + -ing.

noun

1. gerund of eavesdrop
   1. Listening secretly to the private conversations of others.
      The detective kept them in view. He made his way casually along the inside of the shelter until he reached an open scuttle close to where the two men were standing talking. Eavesdropping was not a thing Larard would have practised from choice, but there were times when, in the public interest, he had to do it, and this was one of them. 1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 7, in Well Tackled!, →OL
   2. (telecommunications) The interception of electronic communication.
   3. (zoology) The act of one organism listening for another's calls, so as to exploit them.

verb

1. present participle and gerund of eavesdrop