earn S2 W2 /ɜːn $ ɜːrn/ BrE AmE verb
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ earner , ↑ earnings ; verb : ↑ earn ; adjective : earned ≠ ↑ unearned ]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: earnian ]
1 . MONEY FOR WORK [intransitive and transitive] to receive a particular amount of money for the work that you do:
He earns nearly £20,000 a year.
You don’t earn much money being a nurse.
He did all sorts of jobs to earn a living.
I was the only person in the house who was earning.
She was earning good money at the bank.
Chris will pay – he’s earning a fortune.
2 . PROFIT [transitive] to make a profit from business or from putting money in a bank etc:
The movie earned £7 million on its first day.
You could earn a higher rate of interest elsewhere.
3 . SOMETHING DESERVED [transitive]
a) to do something or have qualities that make you deserve something:
I think you’ve earned a rest.
He soon earned the respect of the players.
He hopes to earn a place in the team.
The company has earned a reputation for reliability.
b) if your actions or qualities earn you something, they make you deserve to have it
earn somebody something
That performance earned her an Oscar as Best Actress.
4 . earn your/its keep
a) to do jobs in return for being given a home and food:
We older children were expected to earn our keep.
b) to be useful enough to be worth the time or money spent:
These aircraft are still earning their keep.
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COLLOCATIONS
■ nouns
▪ earn money
I’d like to earn more money than I do now.
▪ earn a wage/salary
You are more likely to earn a decent wage if you have a degree.
▪ earn a living ( also earn your living ) (=earn the money you need to live)
She started to earn a living by selling her jewellery on a market stall.
▪ earn £30,000 a year/$200 a week/£5 an hour etc
Newly qualified teachers earn a minimum of £24,000 a year.
▪ earn good money (=earn a lot of money)
You can earn good money working in London.
▪ earn a fortune (=earn an extremely large amount of money)
Footballers at the top clubs earn a fortune these days.
• • •
THESAURUS
▪ earn to be paid a particular amount of money for your work. Earn is more formal than get or make :
A newly-qualified teacher can expect to earn about £20,000 a year.
▪ get to earn a particular amount of money every hour, week etc:
How much do you get an hour?
|
She gets more than I do.
▪ make to earn money, especially a lot of money, or money that is not from regular employment:
You can make a lot of money in banking.
|
Jo makes a bit of extra money by selling his paintings.
▪ be on something British English to earn a particular amount of money each year. This is the most common way of talking about someone’s salary in British English:
How much are you on?
|
Some chief executives are on huge salaries.
▪ be/get paid to receive money for work that you do for an employer, not by working for yourself:
Workers are paid around $500 a month.
|
I get paid monthly.
▪ well-paid/badly-paid paid a lot of money/not much money for the work that you do:
well-paid lawyers working in the city
|
It was boring badly-paid work.
▪ take home to earn a particular amount of money after tax etc has been taken away from your pay:
After tax and other deductions, I only take home £200 a week.