All 3 Uses of
earnest
in
The Pit and the Pendulum
- Amid frequent and thoughtful endeavors to remember; amid earnest struggles to regather some token of the state of seeming nothingness into which my soul had lapsed, there have been moments when I have dreamed of success; there have been brief, very brief periods when I have conjured up remembrances which the lucid reason of a later epoch assures me could have had reference only to that condition of seeming unconsciousness.†
- Then, very suddenly, thought, and shuddering terror, and earnest endeavor to comprehend my true state.†
- ... and much earnestness of endeavor have enabled me vaguely to recall.
*earnestness = sincerity or seriousness
Definition:
-
(earnest) characterized by sincere belief
or:
intensely or excessively serious or determined