eager

comparative more eager · comparative eagerer · superlative most eager · superlative eagerest · alternative obsolete aigre · alternative obsolete eagre

1. Desirous; keen to do or obtain something.

   The hounds were eager in the chase.

   5 more examples

   Stacey is very eager to go cycling this weekend.

   I was eager to show my teacher how much I'd learned over the holidays.

   You stayed up all night to get to the front of the queue. You must be very eager to get tickets.

   When to her eager lips is brought / Her infant's thrilling kiss.

   1827, [John Keble], The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC

   a crowd of eager and curious schoolboys

   1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC

   Synonyms: bursting

2. computingNot employing lazy evaluation; calculating results immediately, rather than deferring calculation until they are required.

   an eager algorithm

3. datedBrittle; inflexible; not ductile.

   gold itself will be sometimes so eager, (as artists call it), that it will as little endure the hammer as glass itself

   1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC

4. obsoleteliteralSharp; sour; acid.

   like eager droppings into milk

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v], page 9

5. figurativelyobsoleteSharp; keen; bitter; severe.

   It is a nipping and an eager air.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 2

   1 more example

   If so thou thinkest, vex him with eager words.

   c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi], page 157

present singular third person eagers · participle present eagering · participle past eagered · past eagered · alternative obsolete aigre · alternative obsolete eagre

1. intransitiveTo be or become eager.

   After entering college, I eagered to have a parttime job.

   2002, Mark F. Harris, A Distant Place, page 198

   4 more examples

   Now everybody considered it a high privilege (valued it at a high consideration) to see him and to hear him speak, and to obey his command (him commanding), whereas he, though being such a person, eagered to be unknown, and to escape notice in solitude.

   1864, The Fathers, Historians, and Writers of the Church, page 121

   Our spirits fret and chafe like sea waves on the rocks eagering to climb the shore.

   1913, William Alfred Quayle, The Climb to God, page 116

   The buggy jolted on, the stout, wellkept team eagering, homing, barning.

   1932, William Faulkner, Light in August

   After the go-ahead from the joint committee, the Mugglesby CO warmed up and eagered up tremendously, and we went back to plotting.

   2021, Bill Watson, The Chaos Factor

2. intransitiveTo express eagerness.

   Peg! eager voices eagered voicely.

   1969, Kenneth Patchen, Sleepers Awake, page 141

   2 more examples

   His hair crinkled towards her fondly. "Yes," he eagered.

   1924, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch - Volume 167, page 181

   […] Sister Clare saying Oh look a greenfinch and the name was a gift to me as much as the three and a half more minutes the green vision danced and fretted and eagered and preened in front of me […]

   2019, Toby Litt, Patience

3. transitiveTo make or encourage to be eager

   But they only eagered him to be off .

   1927, Carleton Beals, Brimstone and Chili

   2 more examples

   Physicians also admit to eagering patients to turn to specialised web sites in order to read further.

   2013, Andrzej Łyda, Krystyna Warchał, Occupying Niches, page 135

   Its presence gave him no thought of condemnation, but only eagered his longing for the redemption body.

   1941, William R. Newell, Romans Verse-by-Verse

plural eagers

1. alternativeAlternative form of eagre (“tidal bor”).

plural Eagers

1. A surname.