Word.ws English Dictionary

earning one's spurs

earning one's spurs is the present participle and gerund of earn one's spurs.

Meaning of earn one's spurs

Verb

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

  1. Synonym of win one's spurs.
    • Further, many of these veteranos had earned their spurs, so to speak, and were respected and looked up to as male role models, even though they no longer were active bangers or slangers.2007, James Diego Vigil, The Projects: Gang and Non-Gang Families in East Los Angeles
    Synonyms:
    win one's spurs

Questions about earning one's spurs

What is earning one's spurs the present participle and gerund of?
Earning one's spurs is the present participle and gerund of earn one's spurs.

Words near earning one's spurs in the dictionary

  1. earning a crust
  2. earning a living
  3. earning one's corn
  4. earning one's crust
  5. earning one's keep
  6. earning one's spurs
  7. earning one's stripes
  8. earning one's wings
  9. earning out
  10. earning power
  11. earning powers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: earning one's spurs (page history and authors); earn one's spurs (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:

Cite this entry: “earning one's spurs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/earning_one%27s_spurs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.