COMMON If you are grinning from ear to ear, you are smiling a lot and looking very happy. `I had a fantastic response,' he said, grinning from ear to ear. Note: Verbs such as smile and beam can be used instead of grin. McCarthy was beaming from ear to ear and his eyes were bright. Note: You can also say that someone has a grin from ear to ear or has a smile from ear to ear. I hadn't smiled so much in years. I had this grin from ear to ear. Note: You can use ear-to-ear before nouns such as grin and smile. All around him were more ear-to-ear grins than I have seen before.