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EARNEST
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Something of value given by one person to another to bind a contract
Classified under:
Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession
Hypernyms ("earnest" is a kind of...):
security; surety (property that your creditor can claim in case you default on your obligation)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "earnest"):
arles; earnest money (money given by a buyer to a seller to bind a contract)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Not distracted by anything unrelated to the goal
Synonyms:
businesslike; earnest
Classified under:
Similar:
purposeful (serving as or indicating the existence of a purpose or goal)
Derivation:
earnestness (the trait of being serious)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Characterized by a firm and humorless belief in the validity of your opinions
Example:
a film with a solemn social message
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
serious (concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities)
Derivation:
earnestness (the trait of being serious)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Sincerely earnest
Example:
heartfelt condolences
Synonyms:
dear; devout; earnest; heartfelt
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
sincere (open and genuine; not deceitful)
Derivation:
earnestness (an earnest and sincere feeling)
Context examples:
Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
If you like to write, you may have a book in you, and you may want to start writing in earnest.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Miss Tilney was earnest, though gentle, in her secondary civilities, and the affair became in a few minutes as nearly settled as this necessary reference to Fullerton would allow.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
“My dear Emma,” said he at last, with earnest kindness, “do you think you perfectly understand the degree of acquaintance between the gentleman and lady we have been speaking of?”
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Nobody wonders that they should prefer the line where their friends can serve them best, or suspects them to be less in earnest in it than they appear.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Yet, indeed, I am in earnest.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
This lock of hair, which now he can so readily give up, was begged of me with the most earnest supplication.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Pike, the malingerer, who, in his lifetime of deceit, had often successfully feigned a hurt leg, was now limping in earnest.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
I was conveyed to his own house; and at my earnest request he led me up to the highest room backwards.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
It was at his own very earnest request that they inscribed He fought the good fight upon his tombstone, and though I cannot doubt that he had Black Bank and Crab Wilson in his mind when he asked it, yet none who knew him would grudge its spiritual meaning as a summing up of his clean and manly life.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
