Library / English Dictionary

EARN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Earn on some commercial or business transaction; earn as salary or wages

Example:

He clears $5,000 each month

Synonyms:

bring in; clear; earn; gain; make; pull in; realise; realize; take in

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "earn" is one way to...):

acquire; get (come into the possession of something concrete or abstract)

Verb group:

make (act in a certain way so as to acquire)

clear; net; sack; sack up (make as a net profit)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "earn"):

eke out; squeeze out (make by laborious and precarious means)

profit; turn a profit (make a profit; gain money or materially)

rake off (take money from an illegal transaction)

bring home; take home (earn as a salary or wage)

rake in; shovel in (earn large sums of money)

gross (earn before taxes, expenses, etc.)

bear; pay; yield (bring in)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They earn the money

Derivation:

earner (someone who earn wages in return for their labor)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Acquire or deserve by one's efforts or actions

Example:

its beauty won Paris the name 'City of Lights'

Synonyms:

earn; garner; win

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "earn" is one way to...):

acquire; get (come into the possession of something concrete or abstract)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "earn"):

letter (win an athletic letter)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

earnings (something that remunerates)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The prior degree is generally earned in the closely related professional field, e.g. medicine.

(Doctor of Public Health, NCI Thesaurus)

Of or relating to the activity or business by which a person earns income.

(Occupational, NCI Thesaurus)

A coded value specifying the principal activity that a person does to earn money.

(Person Primary Occupation Code, NCI Thesaurus)

Where a good man can always earn a good wage, and where he need look upon no man as his paymaster, but just reach his hand out and help himself.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“As you will, Livesey,” said the squire; “Hawkins has earned better than cold pie.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

For 1,284 of the candidates, the probability of being a planet is greater than 99 percent - the minimum required to earn the status of "planet."

(Kepler Mission Announces Largest Collection of Planets Ever Discovered, NASA)

Thus they lived for two days: and when they had eaten up all there was in the cottage, the man said, Wife, we can’t go on thus, spending money and earning nothing.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

She, on her part, promised to marry me as soon as I could earn enough money to build a better house for her; so I set to work harder than ever.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I stimulated myself into such a heat, and got so out of breath, that I felt as if I had been earning I don't know how much.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I'm to carry my share, Friedrich, and help to earn the home.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)