All 24 Uses of
earnest
in
The Scarlet Letter
- Planted deep, in the town's earliest infancy and childhood, by these two earnest and energetic men, the race has ever since subsisted here; always, too, in respectability; never, so far as I have known, disgraced by a single unworthy member; but seldom or never, on the other hand, after the first two generations, performing any memorable deed, or so much as putting forward a claim to public notice.
Chpt Intr.earnest = sincere and determined
- When such personages could constitute a part of the spectacle, without risking the majesty, or reverence of rank and office, it was safely to be inferred that the infliction of a legal sentence would have an earnest and effectual meaning.
Chpt 2earnest = serious
- His eloquence and religious fervour had already given the earnest of high eminence in his profession.
Chpt 3earnest = serious intensity
- He presented the cup to Hester, who received it with a slow, earnest look into his face; not precisely a look of fear, yet full of doubt and questioning as to what his purposes might be.
Chpt 4earnest = sincere or serious
- ...few things hidden from the man who devotes himself earnestly and unreservedly to the solution of a mystery.
Chpt 4earnestly = with sincerity and determination
- Beholding it, Hester was constrained to rush towards the child—to pursue the little elf in the flight which she invariably began—to snatch her to her bosom with a close pressure and earnest kisses—not so much from overflowing love as to assure herself that Pearl was flesh and blood, and not utterly delusive.
Chpt 6earnest = sincere
- These outbreaks of a fierce temper had a kind of value, and even comfort for the mother; because there was at least an intelligible earnestness in the mood, instead of the fitful caprice that so often thwarted her in the child's manifestations.
Chpt 6earnestness = sincerity or seriousness
- Nor did she put the question altogether idly, but, for the moment, with a portion of genuine earnestness; for, such was Pearl's wonderful intelligence, that her mother half doubted whether she were not acquainted with the secret spell of her existence, and might not now reveal herself.
Chpt 6
- "Hush, child—hush!" said her mother, earnestly.
Chpt 7earnestly = in a serious manner
- This child of its father's guilt and its mother's shame has come from the hand of God, to work in many ways upon her heart, who pleads so earnestly and with such bitterness of spirit the right to keep her.
Chpt 8 *earnestly = sincerely
- "You speak, my friend, with a strange earnestness," said old Roger Chillingworth, smiling at him.
Chpt 8earnestness = seriousness
- By those best acquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister's cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotion to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and more than all, to the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spiritual lamp.
Chpt 9earnest = determined
- "Perchance," said Mr. Dimmesdale, "he earnestly desired it, but could not."
Chpt 10earnestly = sincerely
- Wherefore not; since all the powers of nature call so earnestly for the confession of sin, that these black weeds have sprung up out of a buried heart, to make manifest, an outspoken crime?
Chpt 10earnestly = intensely
- "What see you in my face," asked the physician, "that you look at it so earnestly?"
Chpt 14
- But all my life had been made up of earnest, studious, thoughtful, quiet years, bestowed faithfully for the increase of mine own knowledge, and faithfully, too, though this latter object was but casual to the other—faithfully for the advancement of human welfare.
Chpt 14earnest = sincere
- But in good earnest now, mother dear, what does this scarlet letter mean?
Chpt 15earnest = seriousness
- She took her mother's hand in both her own, and gazed into her eyes with an earnestness that was seldom seen in her wild and capricious character.
Chpt 15earnestness = sincerity or seriousness
- As for little Pearl, the earnestness soon passed out of her face.
Chpt 15
- "Oh, a story about the Black Man," answered Pearl, taking hold of her mother's gown, and looking up, half earnestly, half mischievously, into her face.
Chpt 16earnestly = with sincerity
- "If in all these past seven years," thought he, "I could recall one instant of peace or hope, I would yet endure, for the sake of that earnest of Heaven's mercy."
Chpt 18earnest = determination
- However, leaving that mystery to solve itself, or go unsolved for ever, he drove his task onward with earnest haste and ecstasy.
Chpt 20earnest = sincere or determined
- It might be the exhilaration of that potent cordial which is distilled only in the furnace-glow of earnest and long-continued thought.
Chpt 22earnest = serious and determined
- "Hester Prynne," cried he, with a piercing earnestness, "in the name of Him, so terrible and so merciful, who gives me grace, at this last moment, to do what—for my own heavy sin and miserable agony—I withheld myself from doing seven years ago, come hither now, and twine thy strength about me!"
Chpt 23earnestness = sincere passion
Definition:
-
(earnest) characterized by sincere belief
or:
intensely or excessively serious or determined