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Glite Dictionary
dearly-won

dearly-won

7.4
Achieved after great cost or loss
  • adjective
  • /ˈdɪrli wʌn/
translation icon : ganado a pulso
  • Their rights were dearly-won through the struggles of many generations before them.

Examples

  • The peace treaty was a dearly-won achievement after years of difficult negotiations.

  • Most historians are reformers by nature, and they critique the past in order to improve American society and to protect dearly won gains.

    Academic text (1998)

  • One of the sides of that triangle then becomes the base for a new triangle, and so the chain slowly grows, easy enough to see on paper but dearly won in life.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The pluralism indissociable from a democratic society, which has been dearly won over the centuries, depends on it.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Her promotion was dearly-won, requiring countless overtime hours and personal sacrifices.

Synonyms

costly
vsdearly-won
80 4.1

Causing great loss or suffering

is the same meaning but written as a hyphenated compound

How Hard-Won

pyrrhic
5 9.9
dearly-won
7.4
hard-fought
16 4.7
easy
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

dearly-won positive

Morphology

dearly-won = dearly + won (transparent) = dearly + won

The adjective is directly formed from the adverb 'dearly' modifying 'won' (past participle of 'win'), yielding 'won at great cost', which is straightforward for learners who know the components.

Etymology

Dearly-won comes from dear, meaning 'costly' or 'much loved', and won, the past of 'win' meaning 'earned after effort'. So it describes something you got only after a big cost or sacrifice.