eager
Formseagers, eagering, eagered
- 1Full of keen desire; impatient and enthusiastic to do or obtain something.
The new recruits were eager to prove themselves on their first assignment.
Investors remained eager for any sign of a market recovery.
Similarkeen, enthusiastic, avid, impatient, anxious
Oppositereluctant, unwilling, indifferent, apathetic
Note
Behind the everyday sense lies a word for sharpness: Middle English egre, from Old French aigre and Latin ācer, "sharp, keen," a relative of acid and acerb. The desire it names is sharp-set rather than mild. It usually takes to plus a verb (eager to go cycling), for plus a noun (eager for news), or in (eager in the chase). Both more eager and eagerer serve as the comparative.
- 2Calculating results immediately as they are defined, rather than deferring the work until the values are actually required.
The compiler uses an eager strategy, evaluating each subexpression before the next runs.
Eager evaluation can waste effort computing values the program never ends up using.
Similarstrict
Oppositelazy
Note
A programmer's term that always stands against its opposite, lazy. Eager evaluation computes a value the moment an expression is reached, and lazy evaluation waits until something actually asks for the result. The word describes strategies and code, as in an eager algorithm, not people. The trade-off is simple to state: eager work is done up front, even when the result turns out to be unneeded.
- 3Brittle and inflexible; breaking rather than bending under stress.
The smith set aside the eager bars of iron that shattered under the hammer.
gold itself will be sometimes so eager, (as artists call it), that it will as little endure the hammer as glass itself
1689, [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane UnderstandingSimilarbrittle
Oppositemalleable, ductile, flexible
Note
A craftsmen's term, and John Locke marks it as one in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (1689). He writes that gold can be "so eager, (as artists call it), that it will as little endure the hammer as glass itself." The sense is about how a material fails: it shatters instead of bending. Because the word is dated and the "keen" meaning now dominates, modern writing should say brittle.
- 4To be or become keen; to feel a strong desire or excitement.
The recruits eager for action long before they are ready for it.
The apprentices eagered after every scrap of praise from the master.
Similarhanker, yearn, long, thirst
Note
The adjective gets a regular verb's endings here: eagered, eagering. It can take to plus a verb, as in "I eagered to have a parttime job" (Mark F. Harris, 2002). It can also stand alone, as in William Faulkner's Light in August (1932), where a team goes "eagering, homing, barning." For plain prose, was eager to says the same thing without drawing attention.
- 5To show or voice eagerness.
The volunteers eager openly whenever a fresh project is proposed.
He eagered at the chance, raising his hand before anyone else.
Similarenthuse
Note
Here the verb reports a manner of speaking or showing, and it can replace said in dialogue: "'Yes,' he eagered," in Punch in 1924. Kenneth Patchen's Sleepers Awake (1969) and Toby Litt's Patience (2019) take it further. Litt's greenfinch "danced and fretted and eagered and preened." Each use is a deliberate flourish, a writer bending the adjective into motion.
- 6To make or encourage someone to be eager.
A good mentor can eager even the most reluctant student toward learning.
The recruiter eagered the graduates with promises of rapid advancement.
Similarencourage, motivate, inspire, excite, spur
Oppositediscourage, deter, dishearten
Note
The causative turn, distinct from the intransitive "be eager" verb: someone else is made eager. The construction copies encourage, with an object followed by to and a verb. Carleton Beals's Brimstone and Chili (1927) has "they only eagered him to be off." William R. Newell's Romans Verse-by-Verse (1941) takes a plain object instead: it "eagered his longing."
- 7Alternative form of eagre.
A powerful eager surged upstream, lifting moored boats as it passed.
Fishermen timed their return to avoid the incoming eager.
Note
A separate word that happens to share the spelling. It names the river wave called a tidal bore, usually written eagre, and it has its own origin, apart from the "keen" adjective. The mix-up runs both ways, because eagre was once also a spelling of the adjective eager. In older texts, context decides whether a tide or a temper is meant.
Less common meanings
- 8Sharp and sour to the taste; acidic.
The ale had gone eager, biting the tongue like spoiled vinegar.
like eager droppings into milk
c. 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”Note
The literal meaning nearest the Latin root, a taste that bites; the story of that root belongs to the "keen" sense. Shakespeare's Hamlet has "like eager droppings into milk," sour drops that make milk turn. The sense is obsolete. Today sour or acid does this work, and eager applied to food would only be read as enthusiasm.
- 9Sharp, keen, and biting; cutting or severe, as of cold, wind, or intense feeling.
It is a nipping and an eager air.
c. 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”If so thou thinkest, vex him with eager words.
c. 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt,”Note
The sourness of the sharp, acid sense carried over to weather and speech. Shakespeare's Hamlet has "a nipping and an eager air," a cold that bites, and in The Third Part of Henry the Sixth he writes "vex him with eager words," meaning cutting ones. Modern readers easily hear "keen to please" in these lines. The sense is long obsolete, so in new writing use biting or sharp instead.
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Practice
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Origin
Inherited from Middle English egre, from Old French aigre, from Latin ācrus, a variant of ācer meaning "sharp, keen" (related to acid and acerb).