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h is the first of a series, and regarded as on omen for the rest; a first installment; an earnest; as the first money received for the sale of goods in the morning, the first money taken at a shop newly opened, the first present sent to a young woman on her wedding day, etc. Their first good handsel of breath in this w…

With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; earnestly. And prayed so hard for mercy from the prince. Dryden. My father Is hard at study; pray now, rest yourself. Shak.

Earnestness; sincerity; heartiness. [R.] Clarendon.

Careful consideration; obedient regard. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. Heb. ii. 1.

The act of imploring; earnest supplication. Bp. Hall.

To call upon, or for, in supplication; to beseech; to prey to, or for, earnestly; to petition with urency; to entreat; to beg; -- followed directly by the word expressing the thing sought, or the person from whom it is sought. Imploring all the gods that reign above. Pope. I kneel, and then implore her blessing. Shak.…

A kind of earnest money; loan; -- specifically, money advanced for some public service, as in enlistment. Burke. The clearing of their imprests for what little of their debts they have received. Pepys.

State of indifference; want of interest or earnestness; especially, a systematic apathy regarding what is true or false in religion or philosophy; agnosticism. The indifferentism which equalizes all religions and gives equal rights to truth and error. Cardinal Manning.

uiring; inquiry; search; examination; inspection; investigation. As I could learn through earnest inquisition. Latimer. Let not search and inquisition quail To bring again these foolish runaways. Shak.

Pressing; urgent; importunate; earnest. Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. Rom. xii. 12. I am beginning to be very instant for some sort of occupation. Carlyle.

With urgency or importunity; earnestly; pressingly. "They besought him instantly." Luke vii. 4.

Strained; tightly drawn; kept on the stretch; strict; very close or earnest; as, intense study or application; intense thought.

nd toward of the mind toward an object; closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness. Intention is when the mind, with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea. Locke.

The act or form of calling for the assistance or presence of some superior being; earnest and solemn entreaty; esp., prayer offered to a divine being. Sweet invocation of a child; most pretty and pathetical! Shak. The whole poem is a prayer to Fortune, and the invocation is divided between the two deities. Addison.…

To call on for aid or protection; to invite earnestly or solemnly; to summon; to address in prayer; to solicit or demand by invocation; to implore; as, to invoke the Supreme Being, or to invoke His and blessing. Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb, . . . Invoke his warlike spirit. Shak.…

Heartiness; earnestness. What was wanted was more inwardness, more feeling. M. Arnold.

The quality of being jealous; earnest concern or solicitude; painful apprehension of rivalship in cases nearly affecting one's happiness; painful suspicion of the faithfulness of husband, wife, or lover. I was jealous for jealousy. Zech. viii. 2. Jealousy is the . . . apprehension of superiority. Shenstone. Whoever had…

deserve it. Shak. In jest, for mere sport or diversion; not in truth and reality; not in earnest. And given in earnest what I begged in jest. Shak. -- Jest book, a book containing a collection of jests, jokes, and amusing anecdotes; a Joe Miller.

o. [Colloq.] See To knock under, under Knock, v. i. (b) To apply one's self vigorously or earnestly to; as, to knuckle to work. [Colloq.]

lay on blows; to strike violently. [Obs. or Archaic] -- To lay one's self out, to strive earnestly. No selfish man will be concerned to lay out himself for the good of his country. Smalridge. -- To lay one's self open to, to expose one's self to, as to an accusation. -- To lay open, to open; to uncover; to expose; to…