1.  The globe or planet which we inhabit; the world, in distinction from the sun, moon, or stars. Also, this world as the dwelling place of mortals, in distinction from the dwelling place of spirits. [1913 Webster]
"That law preserves the earth a sphere
And guides the planets in their course." [1913 Webster]
"In heaven, or earth, or under earth, in hell." [1913 Webster]

2.  The solid materials which make up the globe, in distinction from the air or water; the dry land. [1913 Webster]
"God called the dry land earth." [1913 Webster]
"He is pure air and fire, and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him." [1913 Webster]

3.  The softer inorganic matter composing part of the surface of the globe, in distinction from the firm rock; soil of all kinds, including gravel, clay, loam, and the like; sometimes, soil favorable to the growth of plants; the visible surface of the globe; the ground; as, loose earth; rich earth. [1913 Webster]
"Give him a little earth for charity." [1913 Webster]

4.  A part of this globe; a region; a country; land. [1913 Webster]
"Would I had never trod this English earth." [1913 Webster]

5.  Worldly things, as opposed to spiritual things; the pursuits, interests, and allurements of this life. [1913 Webster]
"Our weary souls by earth beguiled." [1913 Webster]

6.  The people on the globe. [1913 Webster]
"The whole earth was of one language." [1913 Webster]

7.  Any earthy-looking metallic oxide, as alumina, glucina, zirconia, yttria, and thoria. [1913 Webster]

8.  A hole in the ground, where an animal hides himself; as, the earth of a fox. Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
"They [ferrets] course the poor conies out of their earths." [1913 Webster]

9.  The connection of any part an electric conductor with the ground; specif., the connection of a telegraph line with the ground through a fault or otherwise.
" When the resistance of the earth connection is low it is termed a good earth." [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
" Earth is used either adjectively or in combination to form compound words; as, earth apple or earth-apple; earth metal or earth-metal; earth closet or earth-closet." [1913 Webster]

1.  To hide, or cause to hide, in the earth; to chase into a burrow or den. Dryden. [1913 Webster]

2.  To cover with earth or mold; to inter; to bury; -- sometimes with up. [1913 Webster]
"The miser earths his treasure, and the thief,
Watching the mole, half beggars him ere noon." [1913 Webster]
"Why this in earthing up a carcass?" [1913 Webster]

   To burrow. Tickell. [1913 Webster]

   A plowing. [1913 Webster]
"Such land as ye break up for barley to sow,
Two earths at the least, ere ye sow it, bestow." [1913 Webster]

earth, n. & v.
--n.
1 a (also Earth) one of the planets of the solar system orbiting about the sun between Venus and Mars; the planet on which we live. b land and sea, as distinct from sky.
2 a dry land; the ground (fell to earth). b soil, clay, mould. c bodily matter (earth to earth).
3 Relig. the present abode of mankind, as distinct from heaven or hell; the world.
4 Brit. Electr. the connection to the earth as an arbitrary reference voltage in an electrical circuit.
5 the hole of a badger, fox, etc.
6 (prec. by the) colloq. a huge amount; everything (cost the earth; want the earth).
--v.
1 tr. (foll. by up) cover (the roots and lower stems of plants) with heaped-up earth.
2 a tr. drive (a fox) to its earth. b intr. (of a fox etc.) run to its earth.
3 tr. Brit. Electr. connect to the earth.

Idiom:
come back (or down) to earth return to realities. earth-closet a lavatory with dry earth used to cover excreta. earth-hog (or -pig) = AARDVARK. earth mother
1 Mythol. a spirit or deity symbolizing the earth.
2 a sensual and maternal woman. earth-nut any of various plants, or its edible roundish tuber, esp.:
:
1 an umbelliferous woodland plant, Conopodium majus.
2 the peanut. earth sciences the sciences concerned with the earth or part of it, or its atmosphere (e.g. geology, oceanography, meteorology). earth-shattering colloq. having a traumatic or devastating effect. earth-shatteringly colloq. devastatingly, remarkably. earth tremor see TREMOR n. 3. gone to earth in hiding. on earth colloq. existing anywhere; emphatically (the happiest man on earth; looked like nothing on earth; what on earth?).

Derivative:
earthward adj. & adv. earthwards adv.

Etymology:
OE eorthe f. Gmc

N  base, basement, plinth, dado, wainscot, baseboard, mopboard, bedrock, hardpan, foundation, substructure, substratum, ground, earth, pavement, floor, paving, flag, carped, ground floor, deck, footing, ground work, basis, hold, bilge, bottom, nadir, foot, sole, toe, hoof, keel, root, centerboard, bottom, undermost, nethermost, fundamental, founded on, based on, grounded on, built on.

N  world, creation, nature, universe, earth, globe, wide world, cosmos, kosmos, terraqueous globe, sphere, macrocosm, megacosm, music of the spheres, heavens, sky, welkin, empyrean, starry cope, starry heaven, starry host, firmament, Midgard, supersensible regions, varuna, vault of heaven, canopy of heaven, celestial spaces, heavenly bodies, stars, asteroids, nebulae, galaxy, milky way, galactic circle, via lactea, ame no kawa, sun, orb of day, Apollo, Phoebus, photosphere, chromosphere, solar system, planet, planetoid, comet, satellite, moon, orb of night, Diana, silver-footed queen, aerolite, meteor, planetary ring, falling star, shooting star, meteorite, uranolite, constellation, zodiac, signs of the zodiac, Charles's wain, Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Great Bear, Southern Cross, Orion's belt, Cassiopea's chair, Pleiades, colures, equator, ecliptic, orbit, astronomy, uranography, uranology, cosmology, cosmography, cosmogony, eidouranion, orrery, geodesy, star gazing, star gazer, astronomer, observatory, planetarium, cosmic, cosmical, mundane, terrestrial, terrestrious, terraqueous, terrene, terreous, telluric, earthly, geotic, under the sun, sublunary, subastral, solar, heliacal, lunar, celestial, heavenly, sphery, starry, stellar, sidereal, sideral, astral, nebular, uranic, in all creation, on the face of the globe, here below, under the sun, die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltergesicht, earth is but the frozen echo of the silent voice o, green calm below, blue quietness above, hanging in a golden chain this pendant World, nothing in nature is unbeautiful, silently as a dream the fabric rose, some touch of nature's genial glow, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, through knowledge we behold the World's creation.

N  land, earth, ground, dry land, terra firma, continent, mainland, peninsula, chersonese, delta, tongue of land, neck of land, isthmus, oasis, promontory, highland, coast, shore, scar, strand, beach, playa, bank, lea, seaboard, seaside, seabank, seacoast, seabeach, ironbound coast, loom of the land, derelict, innings, alluvium, alluvion, ancon, riverbank, river bank, levee, soil, glebe, clay, loam, marl, cledge, chalk, gravel, mold, subsoil, clod, clot, rock, crag, acres, real estate, landsman, earthy, continental, midland, coastal, littoral, riparian, alluvial, terrene, landed, predial, territorial, geophilous, ripicolous, ashore, on shore, on land.

N  corpse, corse, carcass, cadaver, bones, skeleton, dry bones, defunct, relics, reliquiae, remains, mortal remains, dust, ashes, earth, clay, mummy, carrion, food for worms, food for fishes, tenement of clay this mortal coil, shade, ghost, manes, organic remains, fossils, cadaverous, corpse-like, unburied, sapromyiophyllous.

alkaline earth, bleaching earth, cassel earth, cologne earth, diatomaceous earth, earth almond, earth color, earth colors, earth flax, earth god, earth goddess, earth mother, earth science, earth shine, earth tones, earth tremor, earth up, earth wax, fuller's earth, gall of the earth, hell on earth, on earth, organization of the oppressed on earth, potter's earth, rare earth, salt of the earth, scum of the earth