In earnest

"I wasn't in earnest. I only brought it in joke."

She replied, "When did I ever tell you a lie ? I am in earnest."

Samuel was stern, serious and deeply in earnest. He seldom smiled and never laughed. He was uncompromisingly religious, conscientious and morally unbending.

It's snowing in earnest right now.

The gentlemen wear swords, and may easily have pistols in their pockets—most likely have, indeed. If they fire at each other without effect, then they’ll draw, and go to work in earnest.

But I see that if I were to live in a wilderness I should again be tempted to become a fisher and hunter in earnest.

He spoke in earnest of the importance of achieving academic excellence as well as winning football games.

The Northern Alliance attacked in earnest on Friday night, and the Afghan Taliban soldiers immediately switched sides, while their commanders jumped into pickup trucks and sped south.

The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).

He was talking in earnest, even though his speech carried an ironic tone.