interested

1. 1
   keenadjective

   Paying attention to something or curious about it, or showing that one is.

   She was interested enough in the play to see it twice.

   An interested buyer called about the house within an hour.

   UsageSay interested in something or in doing it. You are interested; the thing is interesting (not incorrect: I am interesting in it).

   Similarcurious, keen, intrigued, attentive, eager

   Oppositeuninterested, indifferent, bored, apathetic

2. 2
   having a stakeadjective

   Having a personal stake in something, such as a share in a company or a claim in a dispute, and so not neutral.

   The judge withdrew because she was an interested party in the dispute.

   Since the councilman owned land beside the proposed highway, critics said he was an interested party and should not vote on the plan.

   UsageMostly in an interested party or interested parties. Its neutral opposite is disinterested; uninterested means not curious.

   Note

   Here the word turns from attention to advantage: to be interested is to stand to gain. In older prose it was an accusation. In Smollett's The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751), a speaker dreads being suspected of being interested in love, of loving for gain, and Scott's Rob Roy ranks it beside selfish and avaricious. In such passages, read it as motive rather than curiosity.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of interest: caught someone's attention or made them want to know more, or got them involved in something.

   The offer interested her, but the salary did not.

   The history of flight has interested her ever since she was a small child.

   Usageinterest someone in something: she interested him in chess. Very interested is the adjective, not this verb.

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