earnest-penny 
earnest-pennyt (i'r'nest-pen'i), n. Same as ear- 
MI , -it-money. 
Accept this gift, most rare, most fine, most new ; 
The earnest-penny of n love o fervent. 
l''(ir>l, Love's Sacrifice, ii. 2. 
An argument of greater ^>oil lirn-ufter, and an earnest- 
penny ot the perfection of thr pivsrnt grace, that Is, of the 
rewards of glory. Jer. Taylor, Works (e<i. 1836), I. 266. 
ear-net (er'net), . A covering for the ears of 
horses, made of netted cord, to keep out flies. 
earnfult (ern'ful),. [A var. of yearnful.'] Full 
of anxiety; causing anxiety or yearning. 
The earnful smart which cats my breast. 
P. Fletcher, Piscatory Eclogues, v. 
earning 1 (6r'ning), n. [< ME. erning, ernung, < 
AS. earnung, earning (= OHG. arnunc, arnunga), 
desert, reward, verbal n. of earniait, earn: see 
earn 1 .] That which is earned; that which is 
gained or merited by labor, service, or per- 
formance; reward ; wages ; compensation: used 
chiefly in the plural. 
This is the great expense of the poor that takes up 
almost all their carninyi. Locke. 
A tax on that part of profits known as earnings of man- 
agement. Encyc. Brit., XXIII. 88. 
earning 2 (er'ning), n. [Verbal n. of earn*, .] 
Keunet. Srockett. [Prov. Eng.] 
earning-grass (er'ning-gras), n. The common 
butterwort, Pinguicula vulgaris : so called from 
its property of curdling milk. [Prov. Eng.] 
ear-pick (er'pik), n. An instrument for clean- 
ing the ear. 
ear-piece (er'pes), n. [Tr. of F. oreillere.] A 
name given to the side-piece of the burganet 
or open helmet of the sixteenth century, usual- 
ly made of splints, and covering a leather strap 
or chin-band to which they are riveted. Com- 
pare cheek-piece. Also called oreilUre. 
ear-piercer (er'per'ser), n. [Tr. of F. perce- 
oreule.] The earwig. 
ear-piercing (eVper'sing), a. Piercing the ear, 
as a shrill or sharp sound. 
O, farewell 1 
Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, 
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing flfe. 
Shak., Othello, HL 3. 
ear-pocket (er'pok'et), n. The little pouch 
formed by a fold of skin at the root of the outer 
ear of some animals, as the cat. 
ear-reach (er'rech), n. Hearing-distance; ear- 
shot. [Rare.] 
The sound of it might have pierced your senses with 
gladness, had you been in ear-reach of it. 
B. Jonnan, Epicccnc, ii. 2. 
Some invisible eare might be in ambush within the ear- 
reach of his words. Fuller, Holy State. 
ear-rentt (er'rent), n. Payment made by lacer- 
ation or loss of the ears. 
A hole to thrust your heads in, 
For which you should pay ear-rent. B. Jonson. 
ear-ring (er'ring), n. [< ME. erering, eerryng, 
< AS. edrhring (= D. oorriiig = OHG. orring, 
MHG. orrinc, G. ohrring = Sw. orring = Dan. 
orenring), < edre, ear, + hring, ring: see car 1 
and ring 1 .'] A. ring or other ornament, usually 
of gold or silver, and with or without precious 
stones, worn at the ear, the usual means of at- 
tachment being the ring itself, or a hook or 
projection which forms a part of it, passing 
through the lobe. Among Orientals ear-rings have been 
used by both sexes from the earliest times. In England 
they were worn by the Romanized Britons and by Anglo- 
Saxons. After the tenth century the fashion seems to have 
declined throughout Europe, and ear-rings are neither 
found in graves nor seen in paintings or sculptures. The 
wealing of ear rings was reintroduced into England in 
the sixteenth century, and Stubbs, writing in the time of 
Queen Elizabeth, says, "The women are not ashamed to 
make holes in their ears whereat they hang rings and other 
jewels of gold and precious stones." The use of ear-rings 
by women has continued to the present time. In the 
seventeenth century they were worn by men ; and sea- 
faring men, especially of the southern nations of Europe, 
have retained the use of them, commonly in the form of 
gold hoops, down to our own times. Among women the 
shape of car-rings changes completely with the fashions, 
long, heavy pendants being succeeded by smaller ones, 
and these by single stones in almost invisible chatons, set 
close to the lobe of the ear. 
Without earitiffs of siluer or some other metal . . . you 
shall sec no Kusse woman, be she wife or maide. 
HaMuyt's Voyaya, I. 497. 
ear-rivet (er'riv'et), n. One of the otoporpse 
of a hydrozoan. See otoporpa. 
Earse, . See Erse. 
earsh, ersh (ersh), n. [E. dial., also crrixli, <ri</< , 
arish, and by contraction ash, < ME. asdic, 
stubble, appar. corrupted, by association with 
asche, ashes, from reg. *crsch, (. AS. "ersc, "ccrsc, 
found only in comp. ersc-hen, (ersc-hen, equiv. 
to edisc-hen, a quail (see eddish-hen), edisc, and 
presumably *ersc, *<ersc, meaning a pasture, a 
1819 
park for game: see eddish. The ult. origin and 
the relations of the two words are not clear.] 
Stubble ; a stubble-field : same as eddish, I. 
ear-shell (er'shel), . The common name of 
any shell of the family Haliotidte; a sea-ear: so 
called from the shape Guernsey ear-shell, llali 
i>ti.< titlierculata: same as ormer. 
ear-shot (er'shot), . Reach of hearing; the 
distance at which words may be heard. 
Gomez, stand you out of ear-thai. I have something to 
say to your wife in private. Dnjden, Spanish Krlar. 
There were numerous heavy oaken benches, which, by 
the united efforts of several men, might be brought within 
earshot of the pulpit. Mrt. GaikM, Sylvia's Lovers, vi. 
ear-shriftt (er'shrift), n. Auricular confession. 
The Papists' lenten preparation of forty days' earshrift. 
Cartwriyht, Admonition. 
Your eareshrift (one part of your penance) is to no pur- 
pose. Calf hill. Answer to Martiall, p. 243. 
ear-snail (er'snal), . A snail of the family 
Otinidte. 
ear-soret (er'sor), a. and n. I. a. Morose ; quar- 
relsome ; apt to take offense. 
II. n. Something that offends the ear. 
The perpetual jangling of the chimes too in all the 
great towns of Flanders is no small ear-tore to us. 
Tom Brown, Works, I. 308. 
earstt, adv. An archaic spelling of erst. 
ear-stone (er'ston), n. An otolith. The sub- 
stance of these concretions is often called brain 
ivory (which see, under ivory). 
ear-string (er'string), n. An ornamental ap- 
pendage worn by men in the seventeenth cen- 
tury ; a silk cord, usually black, passed through 
the lobe of the ear and hanging in two, four, 
or more strands, sometimes so low as to lie 
upon the shoulder, sometimes only two or three 
inches long. In all the representations of this 
fashion it is limited to the left ear. 
earth 1 (erth), n. [Early mod E. also erth; < 
ME. erthe, eorthe, < AS. eorthe = OS. ertha, 
erdha = OFries. erthe, irthe, erde, NFries. yerd 
= MD. erde, aerde, D. aarde = MLG. eras =. 
OHG. erda, crdha, MHG. G. erde = Ieel.jordh 
= Sw. jora = Dan. jord = Goth, nirthti, earth 
(OTeut. 'ertha, in L. as Hertha, as the name of 
a goddess) ; allied to OHG. ero, earth, Icel. Jorfi, 
gravel, Gr. Ipa-fc, to the earth, on the ground. 
Usually, but without much probability, referred 
to the / *ar, plow, whence ear*, earilfi, card, 
arable, etc.] 1. The terraqueous globe which 
we inhabit. It is one of the planets of the solar system, 
being the third in order from the sun. The figure of the 
earth is approximately that of an ellipsoid of revolution 
or oblate spheroid, the axes of which measure 12,756,600 
meters and 12,713,042 meters, or 7,926 statute miles and 
1,041 yards, and 7,899 statute miles and 1,023 yards, respec- 
tively, thus making the compression 1 :293. The radius of 
the earth, considered as a sphere, is 3,958 miles. The mean 
density of the whole earth is 5.6, or about twice that of the 
crust, and its interior is probably metallic. The earth re- 
volves upon its axis in one sidereal day, which is 3 minutes 
and 55.91 seconds shorter than a mean solar day. Its axis 
remains nearly parallel to itself, but has a large but slow 
gyration which produces the precession of the equinoxes. 
The whole earth revolves about the sun la an ellipse in one 
sidereal year, which is 385 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 9 
seconds. The ecliptic, or plane of the earth's orbit, is In- 
clined to the equator by 23 27' 12" .68 mean obliquity for 
January 0, 1890, according to Hansen. The earth is dis- 
tant from the sun by alwut 93,000,000 miles. 
A nobill tree, thou secomoure ; 
I blisse Ii y m that the on the trtht brought. 
York Plays, p. 214. 
One expression only in the Old Testament gives us the 
word earth in its astronomical meaning, that in the 
twenty-sixth chapter of Job : 
" He stretched out the north over empty space ; 
He hanged the earth upon nothing." 
Dawson, Nature and the Bible, p. 104. 
It appears, . . . from what we know of the tides of the 
ocean, that the earth as a whole is more rigid than glass, 
and therefore that no very large portion of its interior 
cau be liquid. Cleric Maxwell, Heat, p. 21. 
Sir W. Thomson has calculated that, if no change has 
occurred in the order of things, it cannot have been more 
than 200,000,000 years since the earth was in the condi- 
tion of a mass of moltn matter, on which a solid crust 
was just beginning to form. Cleric Maxwell, Heat, p. 248. 
2. The solid matter of the globe, in distinction 
from water and air; the materials composing 
the solid parts of the globe; hence, the firm 
land of tho earth's surface; the ground: as, 
he fell to the earth. 
God called the dry land earth. Gen. 1. 10. 
3. The loose material of the earth's surface; 
the disintegrated particles of solid matter, in 
distinction from rock ; more particularly, the 
combinations of particles constituting soil, 
mold, or dust, as opposed to unmixed sand or 
clay. Earth, being regarded by ancient philosophers as 
simple, was called an element ; and in popular language 
we still hear of the lour elements, fire, air, earth, and 
water. 
earth 
Withinne a litil tyme ge nchal se al the gold withlnne 
tin' Mi'irurii' tinM.il iiiioerf/ieassoUle as flour. 
/;-... A- o/ Quinte t'ltence (ed. Furnivall), p. 8. 
Two mules' burden of earth. 2 Ki. v. 17. 
The majority of the cities and towns [of Greece] com- 
plied with the demand made upon them, and gave the 
[Persian] king earth and water. 
yon Kante, I'nlv. Hist, (trans.), p. 185. 
4. The inhabitants of the globe ; the world. 
The whole earth was of one language. Gen. xi. 1. 
She is the hopeful lady of my earth. 
Shale., R. and J., L 2. 
6. Dirt; hence, something low or mean. 
What ho ! slave ! Caliban 1 
Thou earth, thou! speak. Shale., Tempest, L i 
6. The hole in which a fox or other burrowing 
animal hides itself. 
Seeing I never stray'd beyond the cell. 
But live like an old. badger in his earth. 
Tennyson, Holy Grail. 
7. In chem.. a name formerly given to certain 
inodorous, dry, and uninflammable substances 
which are metallic oxids, but were formerly re- 
garded as elementary bodies. They are insoluble 
III water, difficultly fusible, and not easily reduced to the 
metallic state. The most Important of them are alumina, 
zirconia, glucina, yttria, and thorina. The alkaline earths, 
baryta, strontia, lime, and magnesia, have more the prop- 
erties of the alkalis, being somewhat soluble in water, and 
having an alkaline taste and reaction. 
8. In elect. : (a) The union of any point of a 
telegraph-line, submarine cable, or any system 
of conductors charged with or conveying elec- 
tricity with the ground. It is generally made by join- 
ing the point at which the earth is to be established by 
means of a good conductor with a metallic plate buried 
In moist earth, or with metallic water-pipes or gas-pipes, 
which, on account of their large surface of contact with 
the earth, usually afford excellent earth-connections. ( J) 
A fault in a telegraph-line or cable, arising out 
of an accidental contact of some part or the 
metallic circuit with the earth or with more 
or less perfect conductors connected with the 
earth Adamlc earth. See Adamic. Axis of the 
earth. See azisl. Bad earth, in elect., a connection 
with the earth in which great resistance is offered to the 
passage of the current. Black earth, a kind of coal 
which is pounded fine and used by painters in fresco. 
Chian earth. See CAt'ati. Cologne earth, a kind of 
light bastard ocher, of a deep-brown color, transparent, 
and durable in water-color painting. It is an earthy va- 
riety of lignite or partially fossilized wood, and occurs in 
an irregular bed from 30 to 50 feet deep near Cologne, 
whence the name. Compression of the earth. See 
compression. Dead earth, or total earth, in elect., an 
earth-connection offering almost no resistance to the pas- 
sage of the current, as when a telegraph-wire falls upon 
a railroad-track, or when the conductor of a submarine 
cable has a considerable surface in actual contact with 
the water. Earth of alum, a substance obtained by 
precipitating the earth from alum dissolved in water by 
adding ammonia or potassa. It Is used for paints. Earth 
Of bone, a phosphate of lime existing in bones after calci- 
nation. Ends of the earth. See etui. Figure of the 
earth, the shape and size, not of the earth's surface, but 
of the mean sea-level continued under the land at the 
heights at which water would stand in canals open to the 
sea ; also, the generalized figure or ellipsoid which most 
nearly coincides with the figure of the sea-leveL 
If Lactantius affirm that the figure of the earth is plane, 
or Austin deny there are antipodes, though venerable fa- 
thers of the church and ever to be honoured, yet will not 
their authorities prove sufficient to ground a belief there- 
on. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., L 7. 
Good earth, in tln-l. , a connection with the earth In which 
the current meets with little resistance in its passage from 
the wire or conductor to the earth. Heavy earth. Same 
as baryta. Intermittent earth, In elect., an earth-con- 
nection such as is produced by a wire touching at inter- 
vals conducting bodies in connection with the earth. 
Magnetic poles of the earth. See magnetic. Partial 
earth, in elect., a poor earth-connection, such as exists 
when a telegraph-wire rests upon the ground, when it* 
insulators are defective, or when it touches any conduc- 
tor connected with the earth, but offering considerable 
resistance. To bring to the eartht. to bury. ny. 
Gilds. To put to earth, in elect., to join or connect a 
conductor with the earth. To run to earth, in huuiiny, 
to chase the game, as a lox, to its hole or burrow. = 8yn. 
1. Earth, World, Globe. Earth is used as the distinctive 
name of our planet in the solar system, as Mercury, Ve- 
nus, Earth, Mars, etc. It is used not only of soil, but of 
the planet regarded as material, and also as the home of 
the hliman race. (See Job i. 7 ; Ps. iviii. 11.) World has 
especial application to the earth as inhabited ; hence we 
say, he is gone to a better world; are there other world! 
besides this ? It belongs, therefore, especially to the sur- 
face of the earth ; hence we speak of sailing around the 
world, but not the earth. Globe makes prominent the 
roundness of the earth : as, to circumnavigate the globe. 
The first man is of the earth, earthy. 1 Cor. xv. 47. 
The Sun flies forward to his brother Sun ; 
The dark Earth follows wheel'd in her ellipse. 
Tennynon, Golden Year. 
Poets, whose thoughts enrich the blood of the world. 
Tennyson, Princess, ii. 
In the four quarters of the ylobe, who reads an Ameri- 
can liook? 
Sydney Smith, Eev. of Seybart's Annals of United States. 
On the head of Frederic is all the blood which was shed 
in a war which raged during many years and in every 
quarter of the ylobe. Macaulay, Frederic the Great 
