IN EARNEST

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does in earnest mean? 

• IN EARNEST (adverb)
  The adverb IN EARNEST has 1 sense:

1. in a serious manner

  Familiarity information: IN EARNEST used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IN EARNEST (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In a serious manner

Synonyms:

earnestly; in earnest; seriously

Context example:

a play dealing seriously with the question of divorce

 Context examples 

I saw that she was in earnest, and said solemnly:—"I promise!" and as I said it I felt that from that instant a door had been shut between us.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Well, you see we used to play Pilgrim's Progress, and we have been going on with it in earnest, all winter and summer.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“Why, you have always been in earnest!” said Agnes, laughing again.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I trust, Jane, you are in earnest when you say you will serve your heart to God: it is all I want.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Finally I set to work in earnest upon the trunk, taking turn and turn with Lord John.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yet, indeed, I am in earnest.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I began to see we should have a brush for it in earnest and looked to my priming.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

They had not remained in this manner long, before Elinor perceived Willoughby, standing within a few yards of them, in earnest conversation with a very fashionable looking young woman.

(Sense and Sensibility, 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)

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)