arnest

"Lookout! now Johnny Crapeau has lost his temper, and the brig is going to get _loco_ in 'arnest!" as the frigate put her helm down and fired her whole broadside at the flying craft.

The Rover's Secret A Tale of the Pirate Cays and Lagoons of Cuba Harry Collingwood 1886

"Are you in arnest that it is in fun you wer?" says the Pope.

Stories of Comedy Rossiter Johnson 1885

"It's myself that's in it, you unmerciful bliggards," says he, "let me out, or by the holy, I'll get out in spite iv yes," says he, "an 'by jaburs, I'll wallop yes in arnest," says he.

The Purcell Papers, Volume III 1880

He knows the folks be in arnest 'baout hevin an eend on sewin an sellin an sendin tew jail.

The Duke of Stockbridge Edward Bellamy 1874

I'm to let him hear all what you're to do beforehand, he says; and he gave me this for an arnest '-- holding up half a guinea;' and I took it, so I did!

St. Ives, Being the Adventures of a French Prisoner in England Robert Louis Stevenson 1872

"A few may be hindered, and one or two fetch through a leetle late, but there'll be an 'arnest movement of teeth when the hour for eatin' comes and the plates be well filled."

Holiday Tales Christmas in the Adirondacks 1872

The fire is sartinly comin 'in arnest, but the river runs nigh onto straight till ye git within sight of 'em, and I think we will beat it.

How Deacon Tubman and Parson Whitney Kept New Year's And Other Stories 1872

Why, boy, 'twas as long and as solemn as a funeral, as arnest as the cry of a panther, and roared like a nest of hornets when ye poke 'em with a stick.

How Deacon Tubman and Parson Whitney Kept New Year's And Other Stories 1872

"Why, do you know, sir, if I'd been in arnest with you, that you would have been spitted like a cockchafer on a pin before you got your blade round to cut?"

The Young Castellan A Tale of the English Civil War George Manville Fenn 1870

"Why not sometimes for a bit of fun? but when a man's in 'arnest he ought to be believed."

The Golden Magnet George Manville Fenn 1870