| 释义 |
ˈearner, n.1
[f. earn v.1 + -er1; cf. wage-earner (see wage n. 4 b.]
1. One who or that which earns.
1612Rowlands Knaue of Harts 23 Make my hands the earners of my meate. 1614Cornwallis in Gutch Coll. Cur. I. 162 Nor make him so dear an earner of our monies. 1886Manch. Exam. 3 Nov. 5/5 The wives of wage earners.
2. spec. An activity that brings in money for the person engaged in it; esp. in phr. a nice little earner, a means of making easy or illicit profit. colloq.
1970G. F. Newman Sir, you Bastard 7 His earner had come on top. 1982Observer 15 Aug. 22/7 A ‘nice little earner’ is anything that brings in easy money, often but not always criminally. 1985Trucking Internat. May–June 45/1 Vernon sells it at a very low margin to keep the price down — he sees it as a service to his customers, rather than an ‘earner’ in its own right. 1987Sunday Tel. 24 May 35/1 The family letting rooms on the quiet, or the person who has a ‘nice little earner’ on the side. |