eagerly

UK/ˈiːɡəli/US/ˈiɡɚli/

adverbB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,743 of 15,258neutral

Eagerly means with excited, impatient enthusiasm. Leaning forward, unable to wait.

It usually attaches to waiting and to accepting, giving us eagerly awaited, eagerly anticipated and eagerly agreed. Eagerly awaited is close to a fixed phrase in reviews and announcements. The adjective eager takes to and a verb, as in eager to help, and the noun eagerness is far rarer than either. English has one memorable image for the state, since being an eager beaver means being enthusiastic to the point of irritating everybody else.

Definitions of eagerly

1adverbeagerlyWith enthusiasm and impatience.B2+
“The children waited eagerly by the gate.”

Also accepted in games: keenly

Where it comes from

Middle English
egerly
English, today
eagerly

From Middle English egerly; equivalent to eager + -ly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Adjectives, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 3 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

eagerly in the wild

Although many of Strauss's works commemorate travel and other forms of transport, neither he nor his brother eagerly undertook extensive journeys.
Vergnügungszug
Meanwhile, GU was now established as the most eagerly anticipated mix series in a crowded and competitive market.
Global Underground 007: New York
Although best known in California and Florida, the style came early to Mobile and was eagerly embraced.
Spanish Revival Residences in Mobile Multiple Property Submission
The return of Only Fools and Horses was eagerly awaited by fans of the show, which ran from 1981 until 2003.
Beckham in Peckham
On Christmas morning, when I awoke, they proudly gave me the recording and sat eagerly waiting for me to listen to it.
Blue Christmas (Jimmy Barnes album)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

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