eager

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈiɡɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈiːɡə/
• (US, dialectal) IPA^(key): /ˈɪɡɚ/, /ˈɪɡə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːɡə(ɹ)

From Middle English egre, eger, from Old French egre (French aigre), from Latin acer (“sharp, keen”); see acid, acerb, etc. Compare vinegar, alegar.

• aigre (obsolete)
• eagre (obsolete)

eager (comparative more eager, superlative most eager)

1. Desirous; keen to do or obtain something.

   Stacey is very eager to go cycling this weekend.

   The hounds were eager in the chase.

   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.

   • 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:

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

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

     a crowd of eager and curious schoolboys

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. […]. The captive made no resistance and came not only quietly but in a series of eager little rushes like a timid dog on a choke chain.

2. (computing theory) Not employing lazy evaluation; calculating results immediately, rather than deferring calculation until they are required.

   an eager algorithm

3. (dated) Brittle; inflexible; not ductile.
   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:

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

4. (obsolete, literal) Sharp; sour; acid.
   • 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:

     like eager droppings into milk

5. (obsolete, figurative) Sharp; keen; bitter; severe.
   • 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:

     If so thou thinkest, vex him with eager words.

   • 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:

     It is a nipping and an eager air.

• (desirous): keen, raring, alacritous, fain (archaic)

• (antonym(s) of “desirous”): averse, disinclined, reluctant, unwilling

eager (third-person singular simple present eagers, present participle eagering, simple past and past participle eagered)

1. (intransitive) To be or become eager.
   • 1864, The Fathers, Historians, and Writers of the Church, page 121:

     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.

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

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

   • 1932, William Faulkner, Light in August:

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

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

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

   • 2021, Bill Watson, The Chaos Factor:

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

2. (intransitive) To express eagerness.
   • 1924, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch - Volume 167, page 181:

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

   • 1969, Kenneth Patchen, Sleepers Awake, page 141:

     Peg! eager voices eagered voicely.

   • 2019, Toby Litt, Patience:

     […] 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 […]

3. (transitive) To make or encourage to be eager
   • 2013, Andrzej Łyda, Krystyna Warchał, Occupying Niches, page 135:

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

   • 1927, Carleton Beals, Brimstone and Chili:

     But they only eagered him to be off .

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

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

See eagre.

eager (plural eagers)

1. Alternative form of eagre (tidal bore).

• “eager”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “eager”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “eager”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• aeger, agree, eagre, geare, æger