earn — OET · Shobdo

earn

verb

1 they earn £20,000 per year:

be paid, receive a salary of, take home, take home earnings of, gross;

receive, get, make, obtain, draw, clear, collect, bring in;

informal pocket, bank, rake in, pull in, haul in, net, bag.

▷antonyms pay out.

2 he has earned their trust over the years:

deserve, merit, warrant, justify, be entitled to, be worthy of, be deserving of, have a right to;

gain, win, attain, achieve, secure, establish, obtain, procure, get, acquire, come to have, find;

informal clinch, bag, net, land.

▷antonyms lose.

choose the right word

earn, deserve, merit

■ To earn something is to receive it as the appropriate result of what you have done (his first foray into film earned him an Oscar nomination).

■ Someone who deserves something ought to receive it for what they have done or by virtue of personal qualities, but they may not do so (Middlesbrough deserved their win | he is a lovely man who deserves to be loved).

■ Merit is a more formal term for deserving something (the whole of the evidence merited consideration by a fresh jury).

earn Oxford Dictionary of English