/iɡə/, /-ɑ/, /ˈiɡɚ/
OriginInherited 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.
- 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.”
- Not employing lazy evaluation; calculating results immediately, rather than deferring calculation until they are required.
- 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”
- obsoleteSharp; sour; acid.
“like eager droppings into milk”
- figuratively, obsoleteSharp; keen; bitter; severe.
“If so thou thinkest, vex him with eager words.”
“It is a nipping and an eager air.”
- intransitiveTo be or become eager.
“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, eag”
“Our spirits fret and chafe like sea waves on the rocks eagering to climb the shore.”
“The buggy jolted on, the stout, wellkept team eagering, homing, barning.”
- intransitiveTo express eagerness.
“His hair crinkled towards her fondly. "Yes," he eagered.”
“Peg! eager voices eagered voicely.”
“[…] 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 […]”
- transitiveTo make or encourage to be eager
“Physicians also admit to eagering patients to turn to specialised web sites in order to read further.”
“But they only eagered him to be off .”
“Its presence gave him no thought of condemnation, but only eagered his longing for the redemption body.”
Formsmore eager(comparative) · eagerer(comparative) · most eager(superlative) · eagerest(superlative) · aigre(alternative, obsolete) · eagre(alternative, obsolete) · eagers(present, singular, third-person) · eagering(participle, present) · eagered(participle, past) · eagered(past) · Eagers(plural)