eager

1. Sharp; sour; acid. "Like eager droppings into milk."

2. Sharp; keen; bitter; severe. "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." (Shak) "How eagerly ye follow my disgraces!" (Shak) "When to her eager lips is brought Her infant's thrilling kiss." (Keble) "A crowd of eager and curious schoolboys." (Hawthorne) "Conceit and grief an eager combat fight." (Shak)

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

Synonym: Earnest, ardent, vehement, hot, impetuous, fervent, intense, impassioned, zealous, forward.

Origin: OE. Egre sharp, sour, eager, OF. Agre, aigre, F. Aigre, fr. L. Acer sharp, sour, spirited, zealous; akin to Gr. Highest, extreme, Skr. Ara point; fr. A root signifying to be sharp. Cf. Acrid, Edge.

Source: Websters Dictionary

(01 Mar 1998)


Terms mentioned in text: sharp, sour, acid, milk, sharp, keen, bitter, air, words, pursuit, object, pursue, earnest, hounds, eyes, follow, lips, thrilling, kiss, grief, ductile, little, hammer, glass, locke, earnest, hot, forward
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