EARN • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Earn

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/ərn/ Listen

verb

Earn v. t. & v. i. To grieve. (Obs.)

Earn v. t. (past & past part. earned; pres. part. earning)

To merit or deserve, as by labor or service; to do that which entitles one to (a reward, whether the reward is received or not). "The high repute Which he through hazard huge must earn."

To acquire by labor, service, or performance; to deserve and receive as compensation or wages; as, to earn a good living; to earn honors or laurels. "I earn that (what) I eat." "The bread I have earned by the hazard of my life or the sweat of my brow."

Earned run (Baseball), a run which is made without the assistance of errors on the opposing side.

Synonyms: See Obtain.

Earn v. i. To long; to yearn. (Obs.) "And ever as he rode, his heart did earn To prove his puissance in battle brave."

Earn v. i. To curdle, as milk. (Prov. Eng.)

noun

Earn n. (Zoöl.) See Ern, n.

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Etymology of 'Earn'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Earn" Quotes from Famous Books

... Perhaps this is inevitable. I do not know. There is, what must seem to many of us who stand outside the fight, a terrible wastage, a straining and a shattering of the forces of life and love. To earn salvation quickly and riotously may not, indeed, be the surest way. It may be only a further development of the sin of woman, ...

— The Truth About Woman • C. Gasquoine Hartley

... amusements, for their life is painful and laborious; and all their exertions are necessary to earn even their precarious subsistence. During the summer and autumn they are busily occupied in fishing for salmon, and collecting their winter store of roots. In the winter they hunt the deer on snow shoes over the plains, and ...

— History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I. • Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

... than is needed for promotion, Dolly. It's all up to you, as the boys say. As soon as you win the honors you need you can be a Fire Maker. You can have your new rank just as soon as you earn it." ...

— The Camp Fire Girls at Long Lake - Bessie King in Summer Camp • Jane L. Stewart

... other floors might earn the wage just as honorably; Treesa permitted no trespass upon her exalted territory. The bridal chambers, the private sitting rooms, the luxurious sleeping apartments—these were her pride and her joy. The Excelsior had a reputation, ...

— Idle Hour Stories • Eugenia Dunlap Potts

... of Eaton. He belonged to the fine, intelligent New England stock, and did his duty like a man in the state of life to which God had been pleased to call him, working on his farm in summer, and teaching school in winter; for he needed all he could earn to put bread in the mouths of his thirteen children, who were taught early to help themselves, after the fashion of their stalwart Anglo-Saxon forefathers. One of Farmer Eaton's boys, named William, ...

— Harper's Young People, June 22, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

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