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 or eagerer, superlative most eager or eagerest)

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:

     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, literally) 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, fain (archaic)

• (desirous): averse, disinclined, reluctant, unwilling

• eager beaver
• eager load
• eagerly
• eagerness

See eagre.

eager (plural eagers)

1. Alternative form of eagre (tidal bore).

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

• aeger, agree, eagre, geare, æger