gain

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“
Nearby September gold futures at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $70.10 an ounce, a 9\% rise, to settle at $846.60, and this gain is the biggest dollar-gain for gold as back as daily history is available from the Comex exchange -- January

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Definitions (83)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (26)

  1. transitive verb To come into possession or use of; acquire: gained a small fortune in real estate; gained vital information about the enemy's plans.
  2. transitive verb To attain in competition or struggle; win: gained a decisive victory; gained control of the company.
  3. transitive verb To obtain through effort or merit; achieve: gain recognition; gain a hearing for the proposal.
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Examples (50)

  • He owned neither the lands nor the slaves, and if in ten or twelve years,—and for something like that time he had been established at Carleton-Hall,—he could scourge all their value out of them, the gain was his, and the loss would be his employer's. —  The White Slave; or, Memoirs of a Fugitive
  • Still, a gain is a gain, to investors anyway, and shares spiked 6\% to $30.10 in after-market trading.
  • "This gain is about in line with the trend of Safari share gains and the impact of the Safari 4 beta release." —  The Mac Observer
  • Ken Janke, Aflac's SVP of investor relations, said in the release that the primary reason for the gain was the 25\% increase in the value of the Japanese yen versus the dollar from the end of 2007 to the end of 2008.
  • And in any event, a gain is a gain; I buy on weakness, sell on strength. —  SmartMoney.com
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

profit ·  increase ·  loss ·  benefit ·  wealth ·  investment ·  rate ·  return ·  decline ·  success ·  performance ·  reward

Used in the same contextWord Family

gain:   gains ·  gained ·  gaining
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (10)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. From Middle English gayne, booty (from Old French gaigne, gain, gain, from gaaignier, to gain, of Germanic origin; see weiə- in Indo-European roots) and Middle English gein, advantage (from Old Norse gegn, ready, and from Old French gain, gain).
  2. Origin unknown.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (8)

  1. from Middle English gain, gein, gaʒhen, gain, profit, advantage, from Icelandic gagn = Swedish gagn = Danish gavn, gain, profit, advantage, use. Hence the verb Middle English gaynen, etc., profit, be of use, avail, mixed in later English with the different verb F. gagner, gain, whence the F. noun gain, gain, profit: see gain, v.
  2. from Middle English gainen, gaynen, geinen, geynen, geʒnen, profit, be of use, avail, from Icelandic gagna = Swedish gagna, help, avail, = Danish gavne, benefit (from the noun, Icelandic gagn, etc., gain), mixed in later English with Old French gaagnier, gaaignier, gaainnier, etc., cultivate, till, make profitable, gain, later gaigner, French gagner = Provencal gazanhar = Old Spanish guadañar = Italian guadagnare, gain, win, profit, from Old High German as if *weidanjan, equivalent to weidenōn, pasture (cf. Old High German weidōn, Middle High German weiden, pasture, hunt, Icelandic veidha, catch, hunt), from weida, German weide, pasture, pasture-ground, = Anglo-Saxon wāthu, a wandering, journey, hunt, = Icelandic veidhr, hunting, fishing, the chase.
  3. from Middle English gayn, gein, geyn, straight, direct, short, fit, good, from Icelandic gegn, straight, direct, short, ready, serviceable, kindly; connected with gegn, adverb, opposite, against (= English gain, a-gain, a-gain-st) (later gagna, go against, meet, suit, be meet; cf. handy, near, with handy, serviceable): see gain, gain-.
  4. from Middle English gayne, fitly, quickly; from the adjective
  5. In dial. use gen, gin, as abbreviation of again, agen, etc.; Middle English, also gayn, gein, ʒæn, from Anglo-Saxon geán, usually in comp., ongeán, ongegn, against: see again, against, gainst.
  6. from Welsh gan, a mortise, also capacity, from ganu, hold, contain.
  7. from gain, n.
  8. OSc. gainye, ganye, genye; from Middle English gain; cf. Middle Latin ganeo, a spear or dart; from Irish gain, a dart, arrow.
 

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/geɪn/
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