be in earnest

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Those imams who still counsel against jihadist terrorism, says Kepel, may be in earnest.

From Time Magazine Archive

In Washington, Reagan Administration officials stressed that the Soviet leader's reform efforts seem to be in earnest, and avoided dashing hopes for better U.S.-Soviet ties.

From Time Magazine Archive

You surely cannot be in earnest in trying to separate your daughter and myself.

From Cora and The Doctor or Revelations of A Physician's Wife by Leslie, Madeline

I wish from my soul, and hope my Julia will soon join my wish, that the Baron may be in earnest in his attention to Miss Finch.

From The Sylph, Volume I and II by Cavendish, Georgiana

"Well, I know you are not given to joking, and this would certainly be an inconceivably bad joke; but it is almost more inconceivable that you should be in earnest."

From That Unfortunate Marriage, Vol. 3 by Trollope, Frances Eleanor