raring

1. 1
   adjective

   Eager and full of enthusiasm, impatient to get started on whatever lies ahead.

   The new recruits arrived raring to prove themselves on the field.

   By dawn she was raring to set off, her bags already packed by the door.

   Similareager, keen

   Oppositereluctant, unwilling, averse, disinclined

   Note

   An adjective built on rearing: raring comes from rare, a variant of rear in its sense "to raise, rouse." The eager person is pictured rising up, ready to bolt, much like champing at the bit. It sits after a verb and almost always leads into an infinitive. Raring to go is the fixed form, and raring to start or raring to prove oneself follow the same frame.

2. 2
   verbUS

   Present participle of rare, a US dialect form of rear, said of a horse rising on its hind legs.

   The mare went raring up when the thunder cracked overhead.

   Both horses were raring and bucking as the crowd roared.

   Note

   The working verb behind the eager adjective comes from rare, a US variant of rear. Used without an object, it describes rising up or starting backwards, as a startled horse does. With an object, it means raising or bringing up. The same spelling also serves as the gerund. Keep it apart from the adjective rare, "scarce" or "thin," which shares only the spelling.

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