Set By The Ears Meaning

(transitive, idiomatic) To make (a person or persons) argue; to set quarrelling.

Example: 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 155:
  Even the best-intentioned minister could set a parish by the ears, so a single-minded insistence on the elimination of a vice could make him a figure of terror rather than an approachable counsellor […].
2011, Winifred Holtby, Anderby Wold:
  â€˜But it must make it a little uncomfortable for every one if she will set the village by the ears.’