earn

English

Etymology 1

Old English earnian

Pronunciation

Verb

earn (third-person singular simple present earns, present participle earning, simple past and past participle earned)

  1. (transitive) To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
    You can have the s'mores: you earned them, clearing the walkway of snow so well.
    • 2011 November 12, “International friendly: England 1-0 Spain”, BBC Sport:
      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.
  2. (transitive) To receive payment for work.
    He earns seven million dollars a year as CEO.
    My bank account is only earning one percent interest.
  3. (intransitive) To receive payment for work.
    Now that you are earning, you can start paying me rent.
  4. (transitive) To cause (someone) to receive payment or reward
    My CD earns me six percent!
  5. (transitive) To be worthy of.
    To earn a spot in the top 20
Synonyms
  • (gain through applied effort or work): deserve, merit, garner, win
  • ((transitive) receive payment for work):
  • ((intransitive) receive payment for work):
  • (cause someone to receive payment or reward): yield, make, generate, render
Derived terms
Terms derived from "earn"
Translations
gain through applied effort or work
transitive: receive (money) for working
deserve
intransitive: receive money for working
cause someone to receive money

Etymology 2

Anglo-Saxon irnan to run. See rennet, and compare yearnings.

Verb

earn (third-person singular simple present earns, present participle earning, simple past and past participle earned)

  1. (UK, dialect, dated) To curdle, as milk.

Etymology 3

Verb

earn (third-person singular simple present earns, present participle earning, simple past and past participle earned)

  1. (obsolete) To long; to yearn.
    • Spenser
      And ever as he rode, his heart did earn / To prove his puissance in battle brave.

Etymology 4

Noun

earn (plural earns)

  1. Alternative form of erne.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Walter Scott to this entry?)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Anagrams

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Old English

Etymology

Proto-Germanic *arô, from Proto-Indo-European *er- (“eagle, large bird”), *or-. Cognate with Old Saxon arn (Dutch arend, adelaar), Old High German aro (German Aar), Old Norse ǫrn (Swedish örn, Danish ørn), Gothic 𐌰𐍂𐌰; and, outside the Germanic languages, with Ancient Greek ὄρνις, Old Armenian որոր (oror, “gull”), Old Irish irar (Irish iolar), Lithuanian erēlis, eagle, Old Church Slavonic orlьlъ (Russian орёл, eagle)

Pronunciation

Noun

earn m

  1. eagle

Declension

    Declension of earn (strong a-stem)
Singular Plural
nominative earn earnas
accusative earn earnas
genitive earnes earna
dative earne earnum

Descendants

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West Frisian

Noun

earn c (plural earnen)

  1. eagle
  2. (figuratively) miser
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Last modified on 5 May 2013, at 11:28