All 4 Uses of
earnest
in
Oryx and Crake
- Otherwise they wouldn't have done so much earnest, blameless gazing at each other in Andre's Bistro at OrganInc.†
p. 66.6earnest = sincere or serious
- Some earnest aid worker in a khaki jungle outfit, with netting under the arms and a hundred pockets.†
p. 97.7 *
- They remind Snowman of his father heading out the door in the morning, briefcase in hand, an earnest aiming-for-the-target frown between his eyes.†
p. 154.3
- There was a staged media event, boring because there was no violence — only balding guys with retro tattoos or white patches where they'd been taken off, and severe-looking baggyboobed women, and quite a few overweight or spindly members of marginal, earnest religious groups, in T-shirts with smileyfaced angels flying with birds or Jesus holding hands with a peasant or God Is Green on the front.†
p. 180.2
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).