earth

name

1. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of Earth; our planet, third out from the Sun.

   “The astronauts saw the earth from the porthole.”

   “We live in the flicker - may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling!”

2. (uncountable, usually)The third planet of the Solar System; the world upon which humans live.

   “It's my theory that we'll keep being reborn on as many Earths as it takes until every person gets it exactly right from the moment they are born until the moment they die.”

   “The arrival of the new prefixes means the Earth can now be said to weigh six ronnagrams, and Jupiter about two quettagrams.”

3. (uncountable, usually)The personification of the Earth or earth, (chiefly) as a fertile woman or (religion) goddess.

noun

1. (uncountable)Soil.

   “This is good earth for growing potatoes.”

2. (uncountable)Any general rock-based material.

   “She sighed when the plane's wheels finally touched earth.”

3. (countable, uncountable)The ground, land (as opposed to the sky or sea).

   “Birds are of the sky, not of the earth.”

   “Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.”

4. (British, countable, uncountable)A connection electrically to the earth ((US) ground); on equipment: a terminal connected in that manner.
5. (countable, uncountable)The lair or den (as a hole in the ground) of an animal such as a fox.
6. (countable, uncountable)A region of the planet; a land or country.
7. (countable, uncountable)Worldly things, as against spiritual ones.
8. (countable, uncountable)The world of our current life (as opposed to heaven or an afterlife).

   “"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

9. (countable, metonymically, uncountable)The people on the globe.

   “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one ſpeach.”

10. (countable, uncountable)Any planet similar to the Earth (our earth): an exoplanet viewed as another earth, or a potential one.

    “New space telescopes may accelerate the search for other earths that may be out there.”

11. (archaic, countable, uncountable)The human body.
12. (countable, uncountable)The aforementioned soil- or rock-based material, considered one of the four or five classical elements.
13. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Any of certain substances now known to be oxides of metal, which were distinguished by being infusible, and by insolubility in water.

    “The term Earths was formerly, and is still, but in a modified sense, applied to several substances which compose all the various rocks, stones, gems, mountains, and soils covering the face of the globe. They are tasteless, inodorous, dry, uninflamable, sparingly soluble, difficult of fusion, and of moderate specific gravity.”

verb

1. (UK, transitive)To connect electrically to the earth.

   “That noise is because the amplifier is not properly earthed.”

2. (transitive)To bury.

   “The Miſer earths his Treaſure; and the Thief, / Watching the Mole, half-beggars him ere Morn.”

3. (transitive)To hide, or cause to hide, in the earth; to chase into a burrow or den.

   “[…]the Fox is earth’d,[…]”

   “This is the time that the horseman are flung out, not having the cry to lead them to the death. When quadruped animals of the venery or hunting kind are at rest, the stag is said to be harboured, the buck lodged, the fox kennelled, the badger earthed, the otter vented or watched, the hare formed, and the rabbit set.”

4. (intransitive)To burrow.

   “foxes earth'd”