Eager
adj, name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Alternative form of eagre (“tidal bor”). alt-of, alternative
- 2 a high wave (often dangerous) caused by tidal flow (as by colliding tidal currents or in a narrow estuary) wordnet
- 1 To be or become eager. intransitive
"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."
- 2 To express eagerness. intransitive
"His hair crinkled towards her fondly. "Yes," he eagered."
- 3 To make or encourage to be eager transitive
"Physicians also admit to eagering patients to turn to specialised web sites in order to read further."
- 1 Desirous; keen to do or obtain something.
"Stacey is very eager to go cycling this weekend."
- 2 Not employing lazy evaluation; calculating results immediately, rather than deferring calculation until they are required.
"an eager algorithm"
- 3 Brittle; inflexible; not ductile. dated
"gold itself will be sometimes so eager, (as artists call it), that it will as little endure the hammer as glass itself"
- 4 Sharp; sour; acid. obsolete
"like eager droppings into milk"
- 5 Sharp; keen; bitter; severe. figuratively, obsolete
"If so thou thinkest, vex him with eager words."
- 1 having or showing keen interest or intense desire or impatient expectancy wordnet
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"We are all eager for him to win the Nobel prize."
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English egre, eger, from Old French aigre, egre (modern French aigre), from Latin ācrus, variant of ācer (“sharp, keen”); see acid, acerb, etc. Compare vinegar, alegar.
See eagre.
Related phrases
More for "eager"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.