in earnest

in earnest idiom
  1. With purposeful or sincere intent, as in We settled down to study in earnest. [c. a.d. 1000]
  2. Also, in dead earnest. Serious, determined, as in We thought he was joking, but he was in earnest, or I'm in dead earnest about selling the business. In the variant, from the late 1800s, dead means “completely” or “thoroughly” and is used purely for emphasis. [c. a.d. 1000]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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