earn1
- to gain or get in return for one's labor or service: to earn one's living.
- to merit as compensation, as for service; deserve: to receive more than one has earned.
- to acquire through merit: to earn a reputation for honesty.
- to gain as due return or profit: Savings accounts earn interest.
- to bring about or cause deservedly: His fair dealing earned our confidence.
- to gain income: securities that earn on a quarterly basis.
Origin of earn1
Synonyms
See more synonyms for earn on Thesaurus.comExamples from the Web for earner
Contemporary Examples
Thanks to the presence of blackface and KKK costumes, her offensive fete went viral and earner her instant infamy.
For a $50,000 earner, that meant paying $1,000 a year less in payroll taxes.
A $50,000 earner (married, filing separately, as all these examples will be) pays 17.25 percent.
Historical Examples
Why should it continue to be paid out after the earner has died?
A World by the TaleGordon Randall Garrett
As you are heading now, you will never be an earner—it is more likely that you will be a spender—of money.
A Jolly by Josh"Josh"
But to take the earner, is compound, superlative, perpetual theft.
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, OmnibusAmerican Anti-Slavery Society
Does the power to rob a man of his earnings, rob the earner of his right to them?
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, OmnibusAmerican Anti-Slavery Society
Round the earner from his lodgings on a side street and in darkness, stood a big car with the motor puffing violently.
CivilizationEllen Newbold La Motte
earner
- a person who earns money
- British and Australian informal an activity or thing that produces income, esp illicitlya nice little earner
earn
- to gain or be paid (money or other payment) in return for work or service
- (tr) to acquire, merit, or deserve through behaviour or actionhe has earned a name for duplicity
- (tr) (of securities, investments, etc) to gain (interest, return, profit, etc)
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for earner
n.
1610s, agent noun from earn.
earn
v.
Old English earnian "deserve, earn, merit, win, get a reward for labor," from Proto-Germanic *aznojan (cf. Old Frisian esna "reward, pay"), from *azna "labor" especially "field labor" (cf. Old Norse önn "work in the field"), from PIE *aznon "to do harvest work, serve" (cf. Old High German arnon "to reap"), denominative verb from *es-en- "harvest, fall" (cf. Old High German aren "harvest, crop," German Ernte "harvest," Old English ern "harvest," Gothic asans "harvest, summer," Old Church Slavonic jeseni, Russian osen, Old Prussian assanis "autumn").
Also from the same root are Gothic asneis, Old High German esni "hired laborer, day laborer," Old English esne "serf, laborer, man." Related: Earned; earning.
Idioms and Phrases with earner
earn
In addition to the idioms beginning with earn
- earn one's keep
- earn one's stripes
also see:
- penny saved is a penny earned