earnest

noun

1. (uncountable)Gravity; serious purpose; earnestness.

   “Take heed that this jest do not one day turn to earnest.”

   “That high All-Seer which I dallied with / Hath turn'd my feigned prayer on my head / And given in earnest what I begg'd in jest.”

   “1914, February 13, The Times, Obituary: Canon Augustus Jessopp He wrote well in a forcible, colloquial style, with the air of being tremendously in earnest, and full of knowledge which overflowed his pages, tricked out with somewhat boisterous illustrations.”

2. (uncountable)Seriousness; reality; actuality (as opposed to joking or pretence)
3. A sum of money paid in advance as a deposit; hence, a pledge, a guarantee, an indication of something to come.

   “Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.”

   “As therefore the morning devv, is a pavvne of the evenings fatneſſe, ſo, O Lord, let this daies comfort be the earneſt of to morrowes, […]”

   “The vanity is at once encouraged and gratified; while the present small triumph is too readily taken as earnest for a greater one.”

   “The farmer agreed, and in the evening the Dwarf brought him a sack of wheat as an earnest.”

   “But if all this was viewed by Gladstone and the Cabinet as an earnest of St Petersburg's future good intentions in Central Asia, then disillusionment was soon to follow.”

verb

1. (transitive)To be serious with; use in earnest.

   “Let's prove among ourselves our armes in jest, That when we come to earnest them with men, We may them better use.”

2. (archaic, form-of, indicative, present, second-person, singular)second-person singular simple present indicative of earn

adj

1. Serious, sincere, ingenuous.
2. Focused in the pursuit of an objective; honestly eager to obtain or do.

   “earnest prayers”

3. Intent; focused; showing a lot of concentration.

   “earnest attention”

4. Possessing or characterised by seriousness.

   “an earnest disposition”

5. Strenuous; diligent.

   “earnest efforts”

6. Serious; weighty; of a serious, weighty, or important nature; important.

name

1. A male given name from the Germanic languages, of occasional usage, variant of Ernest.