EAGER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Eager

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/ˈigər/ Listen

adjective

Eager adj.

1.

Sharp; sour; acid. (Obs.) "Like eager droppings into milk."

2.

Sharp; keen; bitter; severe. (Obs.) "A nipping and an eager air." "Eager words."

3.

Excited by desire in the pursuit of any object; ardent to pursue, perform, or obtain; keenly desirous; hotly longing; earnest; zealous; impetuous; vehement; as, the hounds were eager in the chase. "And gazed for tidings in my eager eyes." "How eagerly ye follow my disgraces!" "When to her eager lips is brought Her infant's thrilling kiss." "A crowd of eager and curious schoolboys." "Conceit and grief an eager combat fight."

4.

Brittle; inflexible; not ductile. (Obs.) "Gold will be sometimes so eager, as artists call it, that it will as little endure the hammer as glass itself."

Synonyms: Earnest; ardent; vehement; hot; impetuous; fervent; intense; impassioned; zealous; forward. See Earnest. Eager, Earnest. Eager marks an excited state of desire or passion; thus, a child is eager for a plaything, a hungry man is eager for food, a covetous man is eager for gain. Eagerness is liable to frequent abuses, and is good or bad, as the case may be. It relates to what is praiseworthy or the contrary. Earnest denotes a permanent state of mind, feeling, or sentiment. It is always taken in a good sense; as, a preacher is earnest in his appeals to the conscience; an agent is earnest in his solicitations.

noun

Eager n. Same as Eagre.

See images of 'Eager'

Etymology of 'Eager'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Eager" Quotes from Famous Books

... out, pale, her large eyes strained as though seeking to read something which eluded her in the clouds or the shadows which hung over the city. She had rather the air of a frightened but eager child. She rested her fingers upon his arm, not exactly affectionately, but as though she felt ...

— The Double Traitor • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... remarked that if Austria seized the Polish territory, the two other neighboring powers must imitate her example until she desisted. This hint suggested to Henry a mode of removing those objections of Austria which impeded the negotiation. He knew that the court of Vienna was as eager for aggrandizement as Russia, and that all her jealousies would be allayed by a similar accession of territory; that at the same time she would never consent to have the Russians as her neighbors in Moldavia and Wallachia, but would have no objection to their ...

— The Great Events by Famous Historians, v. 13 • Various

... true. Captain Cronin was lying at point of death, the ward nurse said, in answer to his eager query. At first the ambulance surgeon had supposed him to be drunk, for a patrolman had pulled him out of a ...

— The Voice on the Wire • Eustace Hale Ball

... became the foremost man in Athens, chiefly by the favour of the rich and noble, who wished to make use of him to check the plebeian insolence of Kleon; yet Nikias had the good-will of the common people, and they were eager to further his interests. Kleon, indeed, became very powerful by caressing the people and giving them opportunities for earning money from the State, but in spite of this, many of the lower classes whose favour he especially strove to obtain, became disgusted with, his greed and insolence, ...

— Plutarch's Lives Volume III. • Plutarch

... had begun the night he sat beneath the copper-beech with Clare Kenwardine. The design of the structure was good, but Dick determined that the work should be better, and sometimes stopped in the midst of his eager activity to note the fine, sweeping lines and silvery-gray luster of the concrete blocks. There were soft lights at dawn and when the sun sank in which the long embankment glimmered as ...

— Brandon of the Engineers • Harold Bindloss

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