eager

eager, avid, keen, anxious, agog, athirst mean actuated by a strong and urgent desire or interest.

Eager implies ardor and, often, enthusiasm; it frequently also connotes impatience

{

it is not a life for fiery and dominant natures, eager to conquer— Benson

}

Avid adds to eager the implication of greed or of unbounded desire

{

a too avid thirst for pleasure— JE

}

{

cultivated, excitable, avid of new things— Buchan

}

{

he was convivial, bawdy, robustly avid for pleasure— F. S. Fitzgerald

}

Keen suggests intensity of interest and quick responsiveness in action

{

boys in white flannels—all keen as mustard, and each occupied with his own game, and playing it to the best of his powers— Quiller-Couch

}

{

Tories who are as keen on State interference with everything and everybody as the Socialists— Shaw

}

Anxious emphasizes fear lest one's desires be frustrated or one's hopes not realized; it often additionally connotes insistence or perseverance in making one's de-sires known

{

visibly anxious that his wife should be on easy terms with us aW— Repplier

}

{

school masters may be pathetically anxious to guide boys right, and to guard them from evil— Benson

}

Agog suggests being caught up in the excitement and bustle attending something interesting about to be begun or an event eagerly awaited

{

six precious souls, and all agog to dash through thick and thin— Cowper

}

{

the abrupt announcement . . . left everybody . . . agog— C erf

}

Athirst implies yearning or longing more vividly than the others; it seldom connotes readiness for action

{

I that forever feel athirst for glory— Keats

}

{

one or two great souls athirst for pure aesthetic rapture— Clive Bell

}

Analogous words: desiring, coveting, craving (see DESIRE vb): longing, yearning, hungering, thirsting (see LONG vb): *impatient, restless, restive

Antonyms: listless

Contrasted words: *indifferent, unconcerned, incurious, aloof, uninterested: apathetic, *impassive, stolid