earmarks

«earmarks» in Mova's school dictionary: money in a budget set aside for a politician's favourite… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (an earmark, earmarks); verb (earmark, earmarks, earmarked)

meaning for a pupil

1) (US politics) money in a budget set aside for a politician's favourite local projects, often criticised as waste. tree →

2) (verb) to set aside money or something for a purpose. tree →

3) (literal) a mark on an animal's ear. tree →

sense in the lessons

In US politics «earmarks» is a softer word for «pork» — spending to win votes; also the everyday verb «earmark»; farming sense in history. US mainly.

examples

• The bill was full of earmarks for local bridges and museums. tree →
• The school earmarked 500 dollars for new books. tree →
• Critics call earmarks a waste of tax money. tree →
• The council earmarked the field for a new park. tree →
• Farmers once put earmarks on sheep to show the owner. tree →
• The senator defended his earmarks. tree →

note

Often just «set aside». In US politics, «earmarks» can hint at wasteful spending.

In the corpora

• "Earmarks" means money set aside for a politician's pet local projects, favourite schemes in his own area (US).

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «earmarks» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.