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# 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earmarks/#m1)

2) (verb) to set aside money or something for a purpose. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earmarks/#m2)

3) (literal) a mark on an animal's ear. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earmarks/#m3)

### 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earmarks/#x1)
- The school earmarked 500 dollars for new books. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earmarks/#x2)
- Critics call earmarks a waste of tax money. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earmarks/#x3)
- The council earmarked the field for a new park. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earmarks/#x4)
- Farmers once put earmarks on sheep to show the owner. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earmarks/#x5)
- The senator defended his earmarks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earmarks/#x6)

### 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).](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/25-spin-war-and-violence/5/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «earmarks» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/earmarks/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.