earn one's crust

earn one's crust verb: to earn money, to do something as a job.

Verb

earn one's crust (third-person singular simple present earns one's crust, present participle earning one's crust, simple past and past participle earned one's crust or earnt one's crust)

(UK, idiomatic) To earn money, to do something as a job.
- Their substitutes featured two players from League One clubs and Miller, who earns his crust these days with Vancouver Whitecaps.2013 August 14, Daniel Taylor, The Guardian
Synonyms:

bring home the bacon, carry one's weight, earn a living, earn one's corn, earn one's keep, keep the home fires burning, put bread on the table, put food on the table

third-person singular present	earns one's crust
present participle	earning one's crust
past participle	earned one's crust
past	earned one's crust
past participle	earnt one's crust
past	earnt one's crust
alternative form	earn a crust

What does earn one's crust mean?: Earn one's crust means to earn money, to do something as a job.
What part of speech is earn one's crust?: Earn one's crust is a verb.
What is the past tense of earn one's crust?: The past tense of earn one's crust is earned one's crust.

Adapted from Wiktionary: earn one's crust (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-earn one's crust.ogg.

Cite this entry: “earn one's crust.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/earn_one%27s_crust. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.