8 uses
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Definition
characterized by sincere belief
or:
intensely or excessively serious
or:
intensely or excessively serious
- 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.Chapter 15 (28% in)
earnest = excessively serious
- 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.Chapter 4 (73% in)
- Few women had tried more earnestly to pierce the accretions in which body and soul are enwrapped.Chapter 12 (21% in)
- "But that would be pauperising them," said an earnest girl, who liked the Schlegels, but thought them a little unspiritual at times.Chapter 15 (15% in)
- She leant back while the more earnest members of the club began to misconstrue her.Chapter 15 (21% in)
- Helen and Margaret walked with the earnest girl as far as Battersea Bridge Station, arguing copiously all the way.Chapter 15 (32% in)
- The earnest girl's train rumbled away over the bridge, "I say, Helen—"Chapter 15 (36% in)
- But Margaret was thinking how difficult it was to be earnest about furniture on such a day, and the niece was thinking about hats.Chapter 33 (37% in)
There are no more uses of "earnest" in Howards End.
Typical Usage
(best examples)