EARMARK • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Earmark

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/ˈɪrmˌɑrk/ Listen

verb

Earmark v. t. (past & past part. earmarked; pres. part. earmarking)

To mark, as sheep, by cropping or slitting the ear.

To designate or reserve for a specific purpose; as, the alumni fund was earmarked for dormitory construction.

noun

Earmark n.

A mark on the ear of sheep, oxen, dogs, etc., as by cropping or slitting.

A mark for identification; a distinguishing mark. "Money is said to have no earmark." "Flying, he (a slave) should be described by the rounding of his head, and his earmark." "A set of intellectual ideas... have earmarks upon them, no tokens of a particular proprietor."

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Etymology of 'Earmark'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Earmark" Quotes from Famous Books

... at the enclosure, and found it was a check for five hundred dollars. He laid it on his desk, and read the note over again. It was beyond question written by a lady. Every earmark showed that, from the delicate scent of the paper, to the fine, even handwriting. Peter wanted to know who she was. He looked at the check to see by whom it was signed; to find that it was drawn by the cashier of the bank at which it ...

— The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him • Paul Leicester Ford

... fifty; and cut those five wethers out of the ewe herd. Catch those yearling ewes with the wether earmark ...

— The Fighting Shepherdess • Caroline Lockhart

... the 18th century—the golden age of English furniture—plundered remorselessly. Apart from his published designs, many of which were probably never made up, we have to depend upon the very few instances in which his original accounts enable us to earmark work which was unquestionably his. For Claydon House, the seat of the Verneys in Buckinghamshire, he executed much decorative work, and the best judges are satisfied that the Chinese bedroom there was designed ...

— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 - "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" • Various

... before it was wrapped in that undershirt," he said to himself, testing the blood on the blade with a speculative fingernail. "There ain't a mark on the undershirt. Gawd! Here it is again—the earmark of a crime, and no crime—yet. This ...

— The Heart of the Range • William Patterson White

... the other hand, held their courts regularly. And the fact that they did so is of great historical significance, for the right of court-holding rather than the obligation of military service is the earmark which distinguishes feudalism from all other systems of land tenure. Practically every Canadian seigneur had the judicial prerogative; he could establish a court in his seigneury, appoint its judge ...

— The Seigneurs of Old Canada: - A Chronicle of New-World Feudalism • William Bennett Munro

... marked his progress with amusement not unmixed with amazement. It came to him that there was a greater difference, a deeper divergence between himself and Peter than between Peter and these Britishers. The earmark of your coast-born South Carolinian is the selfsame, absolute sureness of himself, his place, his people, in the essential scheme of things. Wasn't he born in South Carolina? Hasn't he relatives ...

— The Purple Heights • Marie Conway Oemler

... and advise him to learn to take care of horses, or make boots, or lay bricks. But again he saw his old friend in the lad's face, and again he looked in vain for any sign of negro blood. The least earmark would have turned the scale, but he ...

— The House Behind the Cedars • Charles W. Chesnutt