Both Uses of
devout
in
The Scarlet Letter
- Not improbably this circumstance wrought a very material change in the public estimation; and had the mother and child remained here, little Pearl at a marriageable period of life might have mingled her wild blood with the lineage of the devoutest Puritan among them all.†
p. 173.2devoutest = most religious; or having most enthusiastic support (for something)
- Yet all this, which would else have been such heavy sorrow, was made almost a solemn joy to her devout old soul, by religious consolations and the truths of Scripture, wherewith she had fed herself continually for more than thirty years.†
p. 146.9 *
Definitions:
-
(1)
(devout) very religious; or having enthusiastic support (for something)
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) More rarely, and typically found only in classic literature, devout can be used as a synonym for earnest or sincere.