Word.ws English Dictionary

earning one's stripes

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

Meaning of earn one's stripes

Verb

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

  1. To acquire recognized credentials by competent performance.
    • Earned my stripes, 300 tracks in my Adidas track jacket2021, “Overcompensate”, in Clancy, performed by Twenty One Pilots

Questions about earning one's stripes

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

Words near earning one's stripes in the dictionary

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

Source and license

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

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