Wiktionary

garner

See also: Garner

English

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WOTD – 30 April 2008

Etymology

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From Middle English gerner, from Old French gernier, guernier, variant of grenier, from Latin grānārium (“granary”). Doublet of granary.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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garner (plural garners)

  1. A granary; a store of grain.
  2. An accumulation, supply, store, or hoard of something.
    • a. 1912, Voltairine de Cleyre, Death Shall Not Part Ye More:
      Master, I bring from many wanderings,
      The gathered garner of my years to thee;
      One precious fruit of many rain-blown springs
      And sun-shod summers, ripened over-sea.

Translations

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Verb

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garner (third-person singular simple present garners, present participle garnering, simple past and past participle garnered) (transitive)

  1. To reap grain, gather it up, and store it in a granary.
    • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 195:
      The rustic does not know what would happen to him if he garnered his corn on Sunday, nor does the diner-out in polite society know what would happen if he spooned up his food with his knife - but they both are stricken with a sort of paralysis at the very suggestion of infringing these taboos.
  2. To gather, amass, hoard, as if harvesting grain.
  3. (often figurative) To earn; to get; to accumulate or acquire by some effort or due to some fact
    Synonyms: reap, gain
    to garner support
    He garnered a reputation as a language expert.
    Her new book garnered high praise from the critics.
    His poor choices garnered him a steady stream of welfare checks.
    • 1983, Ronald Reagan, Proclamation 5031:
      This country will never forget nor fail to honor those who have so courageously garnered our highest regard.
    • 1999, Bill Clinton, Proclamation 7259:
      President Roosevelt garnered the support of our working men and women to increase war production and build our "Arsenal of Democracy."
    • 2023 July 26, Adrian Horton, “Netflix lists AI job worth $900,000 amid twin Hollywood strikes”, in The Guardian‎[1], →ISSN:
      The AMPTP has disputed that description as a “mischaracterization” of their proposal meant to “garner support for its work stoppage.”
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:garner.
  4. (rare) To gather or become gathered; to accumulate or become accumulated; to become stored.

Usage notes

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The "earn, acquire, accumulate" sense should be read as a figurative extension of the original "harvest, gather" sense, sometimes with some inanimate achievement or choice metaphorically doing the "gathering", as "The new book garnered high praise", or with an indirect object, as, "The new book garnered the author high praise". In this sense, the achievement, choice, or fact is actively gathering something, positive or negative, for its creator, even if that choice is inaction, as in "Failure to try can garner you the disapproval of the industrious".

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Anagrams

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Danish

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Noun

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garner n

  1. indefinite plural of garn

Middle English

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Noun

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garner

  1. Alternative form of gerner

Norwegian Bokmål

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Verb

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garner

  1. imperative of garnere

Swedish

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Noun

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garner

  1. indefinite plural of garn
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