All 8 Uses of
earnest
in
Howards End
- The more earnest members of his family never forgave him, and knew that his children, though scarcely English of the dreadful sort, would never be German to the back-bone.†
Part 4earnest = sincere or serious
- Few women had tried more earnestly to pierce the accretions in which body and soul are enwrapped.†
Part 12earnestly = sincerely or seriously
- "But that would be pauperising them," said an earnest girl, who liked the Schlegels, but thought them a little unspiritual at times.†
Part 15earnest = sincere or serious
- She leant back while the more earnest members of the club began to misconstrue her.†
Part 15
- The earnest girl brought forward a scheme of "personal supervision and mutual help," the effect of which was to alter poor people until they became exactly like people who were not so poor.
Part 15 *earnest = excessively serious
- Helen and Margaret walked with the earnest girl as far as Battersea Bridge Station, arguing copiously all the way.†
Part 15earnest = sincere or serious
- The earnest girl's train rumbled away over the bridge, "I say, Helen—"†
Part 15
- But Margaret was thinking how difficult it was to be earnest about furniture on such a day, and the niece was thinking about hats.†
Part 33
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).