All 11 Uses of
earnest
in
The Poisonwood Bible
- Leah in her earnest way helped him scout around for a project, but alas he found nothing worth pounding at, anywhere.†
Chpt 1earnest = sincere or serious
- Finally he squatted back on his heels and looked over his work with an earnest, furrowed forehead.†
Chpt 2
- Why, she'd throw herself belly down on her bed with her knees cocked and feet sticking up and her busy hands five inches in front of her eyes, plowing through her hope-chest projects in earnest.†
Chpt 2in earnest = serious; or in a serious manner
- These children defecating earnestly or weakly, according to their destiny, in the bushes?†
Chpt 2earnestly = sincerely or seriously
- Nelson squatted on his heels, his ashy eyelids blinking earnestly as he inspected Mother's face.†
Chpt 3
- Anatole's students were as earnest as the grave.
Chpt 3 *earnest = serious
- Their noisy presences, of two different kinds, embarrassed us in this field of earnest, quiet work.†
Chpt 4earnest = sincere or serious
- The tata stared out the doorway with indifference, but the mama paid attention and nodded earnestly while Mama Boanda chattered on and on with a very long story.†
Chpt 5earnestly = sincerely or seriously
- As earnestly as Mother had taken up seed catalogs, I took up the catalog of Emory University and studied my possibilities.†
Chpt 5
- Betrayal is a friend I have known a long time, a two-faced goddess looking forward and back with a clear, earnest suspicion of good fortune.†
Chpt 5earnest = sincere or serious
- Through a crack between the boards I watched him pick up his book bag and head off in his earnest, square-shouldered Anatole way down the road toward the school.†
Chpt 5
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).