Dictionary entry

Earmark

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Ear″mark′ (?), n. 1. A mark on the ear of sheep, oxen, dogs, etc., as by cropping or slitting.

2. A mark for identification; a distinguishing mark.

Money is said to have no earmark. Wharton.

Flying, he should be described by the rounding of his head, and his earmark. Robynson (More's Utopia).

A set of intellectual ideas... have earmarks upon them, no tokens of a particular proprietor. Burrow.