▪ I. earning, vbl. n.1
(ˈɜːnɪŋ)
[f. earn v.1 + -ing1; in OE. earnung, ᵹeearnung.]
1. The action of giving labour as an equivalent for wages, of acquiring money by labour. Also attrib.
| 1872 Daily News 3 May 6/1 The men who have earned them [laurels] and know what the earning cost. 1884 Pall Mall G. 4 Oct. 1/1 The real earning power of the property. |
b. concr. in pl.: The amount of money which a person acquires or becomes entitled to by his labour; also, the income produced by invested capital.
| 1732 Acc. of Workhouses 29 To know their earnings, and to give an account to the trustees. 1776 Adam Smith W. N. I. i. vi. 56 The whole is commonly considered as the earnings of his labour. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 416 The earnings of the peasant were very different in different parts of the kingdom. 1888 Daily News 16 Feb. 2/1 The gross earnings of railways have increased. |
† 2. The fact of deserving, merit; concr. that which one deserves. Obs.
| c 1020 Wulfstan Homily in Sweet Ags. Reader xvi. 16 Mid miclan earnungan we ᵹeearnodon þa yrmða þe on us sittað. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 19 Crist us ȝef moni freo ȝeue..nawiht for ure ernunge bute for his muchele mildheortnesse. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 171 Ðanne wule he..demen elch man after his erninge. |
† 3. pl. Gain, profit. Obs.
| a 1200 Moral Ode (Egerton MS.) 161 in E.E.P. (1862) 32 Ȝif we serueden god so we doð erninges, more we haueden of heuene þanne eorles oþer kinges. [But other texts read erminges.] 1703 Penn in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem. IX. 182 Now is the time to make earnings in the islands. 1675 Brooks Gold. Key Wks. 1867 V. 15 If thou wouldst make any earnings of thy reading this treatise, then thou must—Read, and believe what thou readest. |
▪ II. † ˈearning, vbl. n.2 Obs.
[f. earn v.3; = yearning.]
1. Longing desire; poignant grief or compassion.
| 1631 R. H. Arraignm. Whole Creature xii. §4. 131 The strong movings of his hart, and the earnings of his affections. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 95 ¶1 The generous Earnings of Distress in a manly Temper. |
2. The act of uttering the prolonged cry of hounds or deer.
| 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 13 The earning of the hoounds in continuauns of their crie. 1631 R. H. Arraignm. Whole Creature xiii. §4. 219 The young Fawne with earning. |
▪ III. earning, vbl. n.3 dial.
(ˈɜːnɪŋ)
Also yearning.
[f. earn v.2 + -ing1.]
1. The curdling of milk for cheese.
| 1782 A. Monro Compar. Anat. (ed. 3) 40 It is this fourth stomach with the milk curdled in it, that is commonly taken for earning of milk. 1784 Twamley Dairying 31 To allow the Milk to stand an Hour, in earning, or after the Runnet is put in. Ibid. 45 A very material circumstance to be attended to in Cheese-making, is the time..when the Milk is at rest, called earning time. |
2. The means of curdling milk; rennet. Also attrib., as in earning-bag, earning-skin. Also earning-grass = butterwort.
| 1615 Markham Eng. Housew. ii. vi. (1668) 149 When your Runnet or Earning is fit to be used. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. I. s.v. Cheese, Go to the Pot where the Earning Bag hangs, and take so much of the Earning..as will serve for the Proportion of Milk. 1775 Lightfoot Flora Scot. (1792) 1131 (Jam.) Pinguicula vulgaris, Steep-grass, Earning-grass. 1778 Fam. Acc. Bk. in E. Peacock N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) A calf-head and a piece of earning-skin. c 1820 Cottagers of Glenburnie 202 (Jam.) Mrs. MacClarty then took down a bottle of rennet, or yearning, as she called it. 1863 Atkinson Danby Provinc. N. Riding Yorksh. |