11 uses
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Definition
characterized by sincere belief
or:
intensely or excessively serious
or:
intensely or excessively serious
- Anatole's students were as earnest as the grave.Book 3 — Judges (74% in)
earnest = serious
- Leah in her earnest way helped him scout around for a project, but alas he found nothing worth pounding at, anywhere.Book 1 — Genesis (34% in)
- Finally he squatted back on his heels and looked over his work with an earnest, furrowed forehead.Book 2 — Revelation (29% in)
- 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.Book 2 — Revelation (65% in)
- These children defecating earnestly or weakly, according to their destiny, in the bushes?Book 2 — Revelation (99% in)
- "Nelson squatted on his heels, his ashy eyelids blinking earnestly as he inspected Mother's face.Book 3 — Judges (60% in)
- Their noisy presences, of two different kinds, embarrassed us in this field of earnest, quiet work.Book 4 — Bel and the Serpent (50% in)
- 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.Book 5 — Exodus (7% in)
- As earnestly as Mother had taken up seed catalogs, I took up the catalog of Emory University and studied my possibilities.Book 5 — Exodus (20% in)
- 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.Book 5 — Exodus (25% in)
- 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.Book 5 — Exodus (38% in)
There are no more uses of "earnest" in The Poisonwood Bible.
Typical Usage
(best examples)