EARNEST in a Sentence

Learn EARNEST from example sentences, some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

For EARNEST, below is one of 225 sentences:
For a moment I stood a little puzzled by this curious request, not knowing exactly how to take it, whether humorously or in earnest.

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 Meanings and Examples of EARNEST
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
earnest
 n.  seriousness; reality; fixed determination; eagerness; intentness
Classic Sentence: (210 in 15 pages)
1  "I think we should go," said Scarlett, trying to curb her eagerness and to keep her face earnest and simple.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER IX
2  When she was able to bear the sniffling noise no longer, Scarlett turned and pinched her viciously, causing Prissy to scream in good earnest before she relapsed into frightened silence.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXIII
3  Poor Pittypat would be upset in earnest if she came downstairs pink and blooming.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XLVII
4  Miss Bart, accordingly, rose the next morning with the most earnest conviction that it was her duty to go to church.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: Chapter 5
5  He was so desperately in earnest, poor youth, and his earnestness was of so different a quality from Bertha's, though hers too was desperate enough.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: Chapter 2
6  The difference was that Bertha was in earnest only about herself, while he was in earnest about her.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: Chapter 2
7  He was too much in earnest now to feel any false constraint in speaking his mind.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: Chapter 9
8  The earnest virgins were, she fancied, as likely to do harm as to do good by their faith in the value of parsing Caesar.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER I
9  Hugh lay on his stomach, making an earnest business of sleeping.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXIII
10  Vida Sherwin had given her a letter to an earnest woman with eye-glasses, plaid silk waist, and a belief in Bible Classes, who introduced her to the Pastor and the Nicer Members of Tincomb.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVII
11  For a moment I stood a little puzzled by this curious request, not knowing exactly how to take it, whether humorously or in earnest.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 16. The Ship.
12  He was a long, earnest man, and though born on an icy coast, seemed well adapted to endure hot latitudes, his flesh being hard as twice-baked biscuit.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 26. Knights and Squires.
13  Hurriedly turning, with averted face, he descended into his cabin, leaving the strange captain transfixed at this unconditional and utter rejection of his so earnest suit.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 128. The Pequod Meets The Rachel.
14  THE DAY AFTER COMMENCEMENT I moved my books and desk upstairs, to an empty room where I should be undisturbed, and I fell to studying in earnest.
My Antonia By Willa Cather
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2. The Hired Girls: XIV
15  You should either quit school and go to work, or change your college and begin again in earnest.
My Antonia By Willa Cather
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 3. Lena Lingard: IV
Example Sentence:
1  Humor has been well defined as thinking in fun while feeling in earnest.
2  In life's earnest battle they only prevail, who daily march onward and never say fail.
3  Campaigning will begin in earnest tomorrow.
4  It is my earnest wish that you use this money to continue you study of music.
5  When I looked over, he was in earnest conversation with his father.
6  Despite her earnest efforts, she could not find a job.
7  The girl's earnest effort counterbalanced her slowness at learning.
8  When she threatened to report us, she was in dead earnest.
9  I was endeavoring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition.
10  Before they got out of the cab Douglass turned to him, his expression earnest at last.
11  When Mark told Mona he loved her, she dismissed his earnest declaration with a flippant "Oh, you say that to all the girls!".
12  My mind made its first earnest effort to comprehend what had been infused into it concerning heaven and hell.
13  That's a 40 percent increase over levels in 1750, before humans began burning fossil fuels in earnest.
14  She felt that she was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly.
15  It is earnestly hoped that you'll attend out tea party.