earth
(ɜːʳθ )
Word forms: earths
1. proper noun B1
Earth or the Earth is the planet on which we live. People usually say Earth when they are referring to the planet as part of the universe, and the Earth when they are talking about the planet as the place where we live.
The space shuttle returned safely to Earth.
...a fault in the Earth's crust.
Synonyms: world, planet, globe, sphere
2. singular noun B1
The earth is the land surface on which we live and move about.
The earth shook and the walls of neighbouring houses fell around them.
3. uncountable noun B2
Earth is the substance on the land surface of the earth, for example clay or sand, in which plants grow.
The road winds for miles through parched earth, scrub and cactus.
They will revert to tilling the earth in an old-fashioned way.
Synonyms: soil, ground, land, dust
4. countable noun
An earth is a hole in the ground in which an animal such as a fox lives.
5. singular noun regional note: in AM, use ground
The earth in an electric plug or piece of electrical equipment is the wire through which electricity can pass into the ground, which makes the equipment safe if something goes wrong with it. [British]
The earth wire was not connected.
earthed adjective [usually verb-link ADJECTIVE]
Light fittings with metal parts should always be earthed.
6. See also down-to-earth
7. on earth phrase
On earth is used for emphasis in questions that begin with words such as 'how', 'why', 'what', or 'where'. It is often used to suggest that there is no obvious or easy answer to the question being asked. [emphasis]
How on earth did that happen?
What on earth had Luke done?
Why on earth would he want to go to such a place?
8. on earth phrase [with neg]
On earth is used for emphasis after some negative noun groups, for example 'no reason'. [emphasis]
There was no reason on earth why she couldn't have moved in with us.
There is no feeling on earth like winning for the first time.
9. on earth phrase B2
On earth is used for emphasis after a noun group that contains a superlative adjective. [emphasis]
He wanted to be the fastest man on earth.
...the site of the worst ecological disaster on earth.
10. back/down to earth phrase
If you come down to earth or back to earth, you have to face the reality of everyday life after a period of great excitement.
When he came down to earth after his win he admitted: 'It was an amazing feeling.'
I was shocked, brought down to earth by this revelation.
11. to run someone to earth phrase [VERB inflects]
If you run someone or something to earth, you find them after searching for them for a long time. [mainly British]
She ran him to earth in the pub at five to one.
12. cost the earth/pay the earth phrase
If you say that something cost the earth or that you paid the earth for it, you are emphasizing that it cost a very large amount of money. [informal, emphasis]
It must have cost the earth.
13. hell on earth phrase
If you say that a place or a situation is hell on earth or a hell on earth, you are emphasizing that it is extremely unpleasant or that it causes great suffering. [emphasis]
She believed she would die in the snake-infested sand dunes. She said: 'It was hell on earth.'
14. to move heaven and earth phrase [VERB inflects, usually PHRASE to-infinitive]
If you move heaven and earth to do something, you try as hard as you can to do it.
They would move heaven and earth to stop me if they could.
Synonyms: struggle, work hard, strive, spare no effort
15. salt of the earth phrase [oft verb-link PHRASE]
If you describe someone as the salt of the earth, you have a lot of respect for them as the type of person who deals with difficult or demanding situations without making any unnecessary fuss.
Image of earth
© ixpert, Shutterstock
Quotations:
To see the earth as we now see it, small and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the unending nightRiders on Earth
Idioms:
hell on earth
a place or a situation that is extremely unpleasant or that causes great suffering
Organizing it all has been hell on earth, but it's worked absolutely brilliantly.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
move heaven and earth
to do everything you possibly can to make sure that something happens
He had been moving heaven and earth for six weeks in order to prevent the film being made; and he had failed.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
run someone to earth [British]
to find someone after a long search
Olivia is finally run to earth in a Lapland outpost specialising in wilderness trips for tourists.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
promise the earth
to promise to give people things that you cannot in fact possibly give them
One voter summed up the mood: `Politicians have lost credibility,' he complained. `They promise the earth and don't deliver.'
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
go to earth [British]
to hide from someone or something
The woman who had supplied the gun and plastic explosive device stayed put for a couple of weeks before she, too, went to earth.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
down to earth
very realistic and practical. Compare have your head in the clouds; see head.
They think she's too glamorous and won't want to speak to them. But that's just not true at all. She's very friendly and very down to earth.
Everyone liked her down-to-earth approach to life.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
come down to earth or come down to earth with a bump
to have to face the reality of everyday life after a period of great excitement
When something good does happen, it's important that it is celebrated. Next day something will happen and you'll come back down to earth.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
the salt of the earth
a person or people whom you admire for their honesty and reliability. This expression is used mainly by upper class people when they are talking about working people.
These are good people, rather rough-and-ready, but the salt of the earth.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Collocations:
earth being layer of earth loose earth parched earth roam the earth sandy earth surface of the earth touch the earth wander the earth wet earth
Some sockets have two wires - power and earth - while others have just one, the negative earth being provided by the car body.
Times, Sunday Times
Imagine a cylindrical divot of grass and earth being taken out of a lawn.
Times, Sunday Times
He was, in fact, falling towards earth being pulled down by its gravity.
Times, Sunday Times
The work has not been completed despite earth being broken five years ago.
Times, Sunday Times
The earth being one of these was visited but deemed too wet for conventional life.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
In combination with groundwater this layer of earth turns into cement, expanding the layers and forcing the earth upwards.
Times, Sunday Times
The bowl, made of wood, would be covered with an insulating layer of earth.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The nine tracks are in a 1.5km mi long roofed structure, much of it covered under a layer of earth, to keep noise at bay.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The deep rumble of tanks and explosions permeated the layers of earth.
Times, Sunday Times
A sinkhole opens up when the top layers of earth suddenly collapse into a cavity below.
The Sun
Always extinguish your fire fully, either with water or by covering it with sand or loose earth.
Times, Sunday Times
When he cleared the loose earth, what he found was not a rock but a clay head, the first glimpse of the greatest archeological discovery of the 20th century.
Times, Sunday Times
We work in a 5ft to 10ft hole, and loose earth falls down all the time.
Times, Sunday Times
It digs them up from loose earth with its front claws and captures them with its long, sticky tongue.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
As a result the whole mass, to a considerable depth, consisted entirely of loose earth.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The parched earth cracked under your feet.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
Away from the city, the parched earth crumbles and coats cars and humans in a clogging dust.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
He shows me a picture of some parched earth in India, shaking his head.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
You're not going to be able to put it in a bottle and go and sprinkle it on parched earth that hasn't been properly fertilised.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
Giant, smoke-belching cities on wheels roam the earth, literally consuming smaller cities for their fuel and resources.
Times, Sunday Times
Extend to him a free hand (literally, a long rope) and let him roam the earth as he pleases.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
After this date the tonali roam the earth searching for their kinsmen.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Travel back 67 million years towhen dinosaurs roamed the earth.
The Sun
Scientists there say they are confident mammoths will soon be roaming the earth again.
Times, Sunday Times
Her first artistic impressions came after playing in the soft clay and sandy earth.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Its typical habitats include sandy, moist soils in open savannah and sandy earth banks at an altitude of less than 200 metres.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The sandy earth was eroded around the firmer rock and left it standing proud.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It actually ends 55 miles above the surface of the earth.
Smithsonian
Snowflakes, we learn, journey some 10,000 feet, sometimes for as long as three days to reach the surface of the earth.
The Times Literary Supplement
If one looks carefully at muddy patches in the woods, or beside ditches, one can find the tiny leaves of several wild flowers just breaking the surface of the earth.
Times, Sunday Times
The sun was going down and the lights of the city were coming out far below, like a luminous lichen floating on the surface of the earth.
Times, Sunday Times
He had 'a sort of belly-to-earth attitude' and believed in 'the surface of the earth'.
The Times Literary Supplement
I touch the earth, immerse myself in water, go into the open spaces where wind caresses or pummels.
Christianity Today
No one will ever touch this earth the way you did.
The Sun
From these peaks, the form gradually swoops down to touch the earth.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Upper layers of limbs were placed with the cut ends of the limbs touching the earth to avoid uncomfortably sharp spots and sap.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
He would drop them in quick succession to the ground, and as each touched the earth he toed them through the goal posts.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It was believed that the soul/ghost of the victim would be forced to wander the earth, not allowed to go to the afterlife, unless harmony was restored.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It opens with the eponymous protagonist wandering the earth, hopeless and troubled.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
When she left him for another, his arrogance was brought home to him, and he wandered the earth for three years, a broken man.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
I fell to the wet earth, forehead down in mud and snow, fighting nausea, reminding myself to breathe.
Christianity Today
This will raise the trusses off the ground and protect the developing fruits from mud splashes and direct contact with wet earth.
Times, Sunday Times
Then there's the sight of the plants switching in seconds from khaki to shining emerald, the smell of the wet earth, the touch of the dripping foliage.
Times, Sunday Times
Scientists tracked down this smell to streptomyces bacteria that grow in wet earth, and which play an important part in breaking down organic matter in the soil.
Times, Sunday Times
It was hot and muggy, but pouring with rain, that smell of wet earth and costumes.
Times, Sunday Times
Translations:
Chinese: 地球, 土壤
Japanese: 地球, 土
- enact a policy
- enact a reform
- enact a regulation
- enact a rule
- enact a statute
- enact change
- enact laws
- enact legislation
- enactment
- enactment of legislation
- enamel
- enameled
- enameling
- enamelled
- enamelling
- enamored
- enamoured
- enble a device
- en bloc
- encamped
- encampment
- encapsulate
- encapsulation
- encase
- -ence