earn
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: ûrn
ipa: /ɜːn/
enpr: ûrn
ipa: /ɝn/
ipa: /ɛːrn/
ipa: /ɛrn/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n
homophone: ern
homophone: erne
homophone: urn
Forms: form: earns
form: earning
form: earned
form: earned
form: earnt
form: earnt
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: earn
form: earn
form: earned
form: earnt
form: earn
form: earnest
form: earned
form: earnt
form: earnedst
form: earns
form: earneth
form: earned
form: earnt
form: earn
form: earned
form: earnt
form: earn
form: earned
form: earnt
form: earn
form: -
form: earning
form: earned
form: earnt
Etymology: From Middle English ernen, from Old English earnian, from Proto-West Germanic *aʀanōn, from Proto-Germanic *azanōną. This verb is denominal from the noun *azaniz (“harvest”).
Senses: examples: text: You can have the s'mores: you earned them, clearing the walkway of snow so well.
text: With their hard work and dedication, they earned respect and a seat at the table.
text: Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: England will not be catapulted among the favourites for Euro 2012 as a result of this win, but no victory against Spain is earned easily and it is right they take great heart from their efforts as they now prepare to play Sweden at Wembley on Tuesday.
ref: 2011 November 12, “International friendly: England 1-0 Spain”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
examples: text: He earns seven million dollars a year as CEO.  My bank account is only earning one percent interest.
text: She earns more than forty thousand dollars a year in passive income from her parents' investments — that's what she gets before she even gets out of bed or lifts a finger.
text: After stuffing themselves and their clients full of dodgy mortgages at bogus prices with shoddy assertions of safety, many of the world's biggest banks toppled when housing prices fell. Meanwhile, financial executives whose irresponsible policies and slipshod oversight contributed to the collapse nevertheless earned—and kept—billions of dollars in bonuses, stock options, and other forms of incentive compensation. Many of them are still basking in baronial splendor, apparently unscathed even by the pangs of guilty conscience.
ref: 2015, Jason Zweig, The Devil's Financial Dictionary, PublicAffairs, →ISBN, page 1:
glosses: To receive payment for work or for a role or position held (regardless of whether effort was applied or whether the remuneration is deserved or commensurate).
examples: text: Now that you are earning, you can start paying me rent.
glosses: To receive payment for work.
examples: text: My CD earns me six percent!
text: In that era, all their long, hard, dangerous labor in the mines barely earned them even enough to eat!
text: '[T]hough I earned her a lot of money, I have nothing but regrets for what I did.'
ref: 1965, James Holledge, What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page 99:
glosses: To cause (someone) to receive payment or reward.
examples: text: to earn a spot in the top 20
glosses: To achieve by being worthy of.
Synonyms: sense: gain through applied effort or work
word: deserve
sense: gain through applied effort or work
word: merit
sense: gain through applied effort or work
word: garner
sense: gain through applied effort or work
word: win
sense: (transitive) receive payment for work
word: get
sense: (transitive) receive payment for work
word: take in
sense: (transitive) receive payment for work
word: rake in
sense: (intransitive) receive payment for work
word: rake it in
sense: cause someone to receive payment or reward
word: yield
sense: cause someone to receive payment or reward
word: make
sense: cause someone to receive payment or reward
word: generate
sense: cause someone to receive payment or reward
word: render
Derived terms: earnable
earn a living
earner
earnful
earnings
earn one's corn
earn one's crust
earn one's keep
earn one's spurs
earn one's stripes
earn one's wings
earn out
earnout
hard-earned
nonearning
outearn
outourn
overearn
pay as you earn
re-earn
reearn
underearn
unearn
unearned
unearning