to earn a living
33
2.2
- phrasal verb
:
ganarse la vida
- The money, she knew, would run out eventually, and she had to earn a living.
- work to earn a living
- earn a living wage
- need to earn a living
And so you're looking for a way to earn a living pending the trials.
- And so you're looking for a way to earn a living pending the trials.
- You know, they have no discernible means of earning a living doing a straight day's work.
- But, you know, it was just like, I wonder if you can earn a living doing this.
- So you got to earn a living, pay your way and study at the same time.
- There was also a newly displaced workforce who were hoping to earn a living through start-ups or freelancing.
- You realize that we are entrepreneurs not because we have to do it to earn a living.
- And now who are you when your way of life as well as your way of earning a living is no longer available.
- We all step up everyday to earn a living, to maintain relationships, to take the responsibility of owning property, to raise children.
- I, I, I believed earning a living was inexorably tied to myself worth.
- I mean, and most of them are going to earn a living.
- You don't need the life for respect or to earn a living.
Examples
-
I've got to earn a living.
-
How do you expect to earn a living out there?
-
My, my, my dream at that moment, my big dream was to earn a living through reading and writing.
-
But, you know, it was just like, I wonder if you can earn a living doing this.
-
So you got to earn a living, pay your way and study at the same time.
-
But I have to earn a living.
-
I got married, my wife and I started having kids and I needed to earn a living so it all worked out.
-
After her mother died, she tried to earn a living, but she could not find a job.
Academic text (1995) -
We all step up every day to earn a living, to maintain relationships, to take the responsibility of owning property, to raise children.
-
After leaving school at 16, he earned a living as a construction worker.
Synonyms
∞
1.3
To earn money from work or business
780
1.0
To get money for work you do or from a business
477
1.2
To get money by working or running a business
25
2.2
To earn money by having a job
To make enough money to live
Do enough work, paid or not, to pay for food and a place to live
How Financially Secure
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'earn a living' is directly compositional: 'earn' (to receive payment) combined with 'living' (means of support) yields the sense 'make money to support oneself'. The article 'a' is semantically neutral and this construction is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will reliably infer the meaning.
Etymology
Earn a living comes from the simple idea that to earn is to get money by working and living is what keeps you alive, like food and a home. So the phrase means 'to make money to support yourself'.