well-earned

British

adjective

fully deserved

a well-earned rest

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Dreamland Margate in Kent announced on Tuesday that the amusement park's Scenic Railway would "take well-earned retirement from operation as a ride".

From BBC

When I took Otto out for morning walks, I noticed nurses coming home in scrubs after overnight shifts at the nearby hospital—clearly headed straight for well-earned sleep.

From Salon

When the trap snapped at the end, I shed a well-earned tear.

From Los Angeles Times

“Starfleet Academy” is not a particularly serious story—the conflicts are often manufactured and the emotional payoffs neither well-earned nor quite as perplexing as the fact that Stephen Colbert provides the voice of the “digital dean of students” in this Paramount production.

From The Wall Street Journal

"It was a good game of Test cricket and it was a well-earned victory."

From Barron's

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023