EARN • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... little gifts of money were very timely, for the poor organ-grinder was growing less and less able to persevere in his uncertain calling; and though Nelly was practising plain sewing, that she might be able to earn something herself, it was not likely that her ...

— Lucy Raymond - Or, The Children's Watchword • Agnes Maule Machar

... town, Rostopchin ordered the prisons to be opened, and the hideous crowd of condemned prisoners jostled and mixed with the half-frantic citizens who were fleeing before the French. The governor retained two prisoners—one a Frenchman, lately come to Moscow to earn a living; the other, a Russian, and both accused of having acted as agents of the enemy. "Go," said Rostopchin to the Frenchman, "you have been ungrateful but you have the right to prefer your country; you are now again free, go back to your own people. As for you," he added, turning to ...

— Worlds Best Histories - France Vol 7 • M. Guizot and Madame Guizot De Witt

... and made the most of it. I took in washing, and sold coffee and yams and other provisions to the captains of ships. I did not sit still idling during the absence of my owners; for I wanted, by all honest means, to earn money to buy my freedom. Sometimes I bought a hog cheap on board ship, and sold it for double the money on shore; and I also earned a good deal by selling coffee. By this means I by degrees acquired a little cash. A gentleman ...

— The History of Mary Prince - A West Indian Slave • Mary Prince

... affectionate hug from mother and a kiss from Jenny, who came to the corner to see the last of me, I started off for the Saint Vincent with father, who rowed me aboard himself, I being the very first fare he had for the day, though, of course, as you can imagine, he did not earn much by ...

— Young Tom Bowling - The Boys of the British Navy • J.C. Hutcheson

... in flower and vegetable seeds formed a lucrative and popular means by which women could earn a livelihood in colonial days. I have seen in one of the dingy little newspaper sheets of those days, in the large total of nine advertisements, contained therein, the announcements, by five Boston seedswomen, of lists ...

— Home Life in Colonial Days • Alice Morse Earle

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