To be by the ears. A familiar and very old phrase, denoting to quarrel or fight. It alludes to the practice of dogs, which, when fighting, seize each other by the ears.
Poor naked men belabored one another with shagged sticks, or daily fell together by the ears, at fisty-cuffs.--More.
She used to carry tales from one to another, till she had set the neighborhood together by the ears.--Arbuthnot.
A glossary of provincial and local words used in England by Francis Grose
Completely overwhelmed. 'He sank over head and ears in the river;' 'He was over head and ears in deb...
Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.