earnest

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“
Mr. Wild's acting displays that happy medium between jocularity and earnest, which is the perfection of burlesque.

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Definitions (26)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. adjective Marked by or showing deep sincerity or seriousness: an earnest gesture of goodwill.
  2. adjective Of an important or weighty nature; grave. See Synonyms at serious.
  3. idiom in earnest With a purposeful or sincere intent: settled down to study in earnest for the examination.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (12)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

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Examples (50)

  • His expression earnest, he gestured ingenuously at his aunt. —  A Lady of Expectations
  • Ferdinand was earnest, and Mrs. Bradley, apparently contemplating not his face but the yellow-starred jasmine behind his black-clad shoulder, had given him close attention for more than twenty minutes, while they stood together at the gate, for, characteristically, he had given no hint of the object of his visit until he was ready to depart. —  St. Peter’s Finger - Gladys Mitchell - Bradley 09: 1938
  • The listener is more in earnest, and the emotions called up by the subject impress him more strongly than when listening to secular music. —  Beethoven
  • The members of this society could not at first be brought to believe that I was in earnest, and I was obliged to bring it home to them by a categorical explanation, in which I dwelt on their slackness and their disregard of my urgent proposals for the establishment of a decent orchestra. —  My Life, Volume II
  • Then in earnest--she had spoken twice before that from her window over the bird-fancier's--but then in earnest, on their approaching the house of mourning, her voice, in the Reading, became recognisable. —  Charles Dickens as a Reader
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

passionate ·  sincere ·  ardent ·  fervent ·  tender ·  eager ·  kindly ·  mutual ·  impassioned ·  vehement
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (7)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English ernest, from Old English eornoste; see er-1 in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English ernest, variant of ernes, alteration of Old French erres, pl. of erre, pledge, from Latin arra, alteration of arrabō, from Greek arrabōn, earnest-money, of Canaanite origin; see ʿrb in Semitic roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. from Middle English ernest, eornest, from Anglo-Saxon eornest, eornost, eornust, zeal, serious purpose, = OFries. ernst, Friesic ernste = Middle Dutch aernst, Dutch ernst = Middle Low German ernest, ernst, Low German ernst = Old High German ernust, Middle High German ernest, German ernst, zeal, vigor, seriousness; cf. Icelandic ern, brisk, vigorous. The Old High German and Middle High German word has, rarely, the sense of ‘fighting,’ but there is no authority in Anglo-Saxon or Middle English for this sense, on which a comparison with Icelandic orrosta, modern orosta, orusta, a battle, is founded.
  2. from Middle English *erneste, adjective, not found (only ernestful), from Anglo-Saxon eornoste, adjective and adverb, = Middle Low German ernest, ernst, German ernst, adjective; from the noun.
  3. = German ernsten, be severe, speak or act severely; from the noun.
  4. With excrescent -t, from Middle English ernes, eernes, a pledge, from Welsh ernes, a pledge, ern, a pledge, erno, give a pledge. Cf. Latin arrha, arra, earnest: see arles and arrha.
  5. from earnest, n.
 

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/ˈərnɛst/
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