All 12 Uses of
earnest
in
Great Expectations
- I earnestly expressed my hope that he wouldn't, and held tighter to the tombstone on which he had put me; partly, to keep myself upon it; partly, to keep myself from crying.†
p. 3.2earnestly = sincerely or seriously
- Would he believe that I was both imp and hound in treacherous earnest, and had betrayed him?†
p. 34.6 *earnest = sincere or serious
- When these points were settled, and so far carried out as that I had begun to work in earnest, it occurred to me that if I could retain my bedroom in Barnard's Inn, my life would be agreeably varied, while my manners would be none the worse for Herbert's society.†
p. 207.0in earnest = serious; or in a serious manner
- Handel, my good fellow;"—though he spoke in this light tone, he was very much in earnest,—"I have been thinking since we have been talking with our feet on this fender, that Estella surely cannot be a condition of your inheritance, if she was never referred to by your guardian.†
p. 264.0
- It is a present to you on this day, in earnest of your expectations.†
p. 306.8
- At length, the thing being done, and he having that day entered Clarriker's House, and he having talked to me for a whole evening in a flush of pleasure and success, I did really cry in good earnest when I went to bed, to think that my expectations had done some good to somebody.†
p. 319.5earnest = sincere or serious
- "Don't you mind talking, Pip," said he, after again drawing his sleeve over his eyes and forehead, as the click came in his throat which I well remembered,—and he was all the more horrible to me that he was so much in earnest; "you can't do better nor keep quiet, dear boy.†
p. 341.4in earnest = serious; or in a serious manner
- My earnestness awoke a wonder in her that seemed as if it would have been touched with compassion, if she could have rendered me at all intelligible to her own mind.†
p. 385.5earnestness = sincerity or seriousness
- There was an earnest womanly compassion for me in her new affection.†
p. 424.2earnest = sincere or serious
- I am as sure of that, Wemmick, as you can be, and I thank you most earnestly for all your interest and friendship.†
p. 480.9earnestly = sincerely or seriously
- I earnestly hoped and prayed that he might die before the Recorder's Report was made; but, in the dread of his lingering on, I began that night to write out a petition to the Home Secretary of State, setting forth my knowledge of him, and how it was that he had come back for my sake.†
p. 488.3
- "But you said to me," returned Estella, very earnestly, 'God bless you, God forgive you!'†
p. 515.8
Definitions:
-
(1)
(earnest) characterized by sincere belief
or:
intensely or excessively serious or determined -
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Earnest can also be used as a name (variant spelling of Ernest), or to signify the seriousness of a pledge made (as when earnest money is included with an offer to purchase a home).