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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
hard-earned
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
cash
▪ The last thing you want to worry about when you invest your hard-earned cash is whether your adviser is trustworthy.
money
▪ The business of selling shares at licensed dealers is often a gimmick which loses investors their hard-earned money.
▪ They are pictured as virtually irredeemable, lazy, dependent, living off the hard-earned money of others.
▪ Start telling your children what else that hard-earned money can buy.
▪ I learned the lesson the hard way-by spending my hard-earned money for it.
▪ During the next three months Alexander spent all his hard-earned money visiting the theatre, art galleries or going to concerts.
▪ I believe Washington takes too much of your hard-earned money.
▪ After dark there is more atmosphere as the men come to spend their hard-earned money.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ After dark there is more atmosphere as the men come to spend their hard-earned money.
▪ Hence budget formulas are necessary to protect managers from raids on their hard-earned profits.
▪ I believe Washington takes too much of your hard-earned money.
▪ Start telling your children what else that hard-earned money can buy.
▪ The award by the New York drama critics had, by Robards' own acknowledgement, been hard-earned.
▪ The business of selling shares at licensed dealers is often a gimmick which loses investors their hard-earned money.
▪ The millions who would soon be looking for somewhere to spend their hard-earned break were his natural customers.
▪ Those who haven't taken advantage of early season low prices still have to take their hard-earned rest.

Usage examples of "hard-earned".

That renowned structure was a source of great pride to all Bangladeshi, built as it was by their labor and their hard-earned takas.

Then before he could capitalise on that hard-earned freedom a door lock clicked in the darkness.

She came out a side exit wrapped in plastic rainwear including a hat and floppy booties, and seemed ready for some hard-earned relaxation.

Then most of them came in, not just with the money but often with a gift to show their gratitude that Mr Tortoni had believed in them when no one else would, had fronted them some of his own hard-earned money to help them out in their difficult time.

Gulf War, the Iraqi units quickly lost all of these hard-earned advantages.

So the guy must be dead, and I'm not going to spend my hard-earned rest in Connemara worrying about what might happen next.

But this time he felt overcome by it, for these were the Caters, who had labored so faithfully to keep their family together, who despite their pitiful, hard-earned income had always contributed to his salary, had even whitewashed their shack to preserve an appearance of decency and dignity.

In retrospect, it's easy enough for us to see how Debierue captured the hearts and minds of the remaining Dadaists who were gradually, one by one, dropping out of Dada and losing their hard-earned recognition to the burgeoning Surrealists.

The faux-young boomers feel betrayed, forced back into the labor pool, but unable to cope with the implant-accelerated culture of the new millennium, their hard-earned experience rendered obsolete by deflationary time.

She couldn't think of a reason for them to come to Bisbee, unless Jake's crooked tricks had become too well known in Tombstone, forcing him to go elsewhere to separate miners from their hard-earned wages.

Long legs, elegant breasts, big golden eyes, tousled hair that was the color of bittersweet chocolate, and an aura of vulnerability that slid past his hard-earned defenses.

One of thirty blessed men and women (culled from a bumper crop of two thousand) who had deemed a starting salary of ninety thousand dollars, a signing bonus of seven thousand dollars, and a future promising untold millions adequate compensation for allowing the savviest brains on Wall Street to daily instill in them their combined and hard-earned knowledge.

After World War II, Eldred had laid out some of his hard-earned cash to buy Kenny a shaggy, sway-backed pony, which the Stouts had kept tethered to a chinaberry tree in the backyard.

How such a man, whose parts enable him to bring a long and difficult campaign to a successful conclusion, can play ducks and drakes with his hard-earned fortune, launching blindfold into chimerical schemes, signing unread documents, trusting his fellow-men, is beyond my comprehension.

You do not play such tricks on a soldier, do not turn him out of the train that is taking him back to a fortnight's hard-earned leave and send him marching along a confounded country road, hounding him back to the front to fight with tanks, flame throwers and shells.