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Apprehensive vs Eager - What's the difference?

apprehensive | eager |

As adjectives the difference between apprehensive and eager

is that apprehensive is anticipating something with anxiety or fear while eager is sharp; sour; acid.

As a noun eager is

alternative form of lang=en (tidal bore).

apprehensive

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Anticipating something with anxiety or fear.
  • * 1719 ,
    • this convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the night on that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day was another question too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of the lions and tigers; at least we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it.
  • Perceptive; quick to learn; intelligent; capable of grasping with the mind or intellect.
  • * 1670 ,
    • More fond of Miracles, than apprehensive of Truth.

    Derived terms

    * apprehensively

    eager

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) eger, from (etyl) egre (French aigre), from (etyl) ; see acid, acerb, etc. Compare vinegar, alegar.

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (obsolete) Sharp; sour; acid.
  • * Shakespeare
    • like eager droppings into milk
  • (obsolete) Sharp; keen; bitter; severe.
  • * Shakespeare
    • eager words
  • * Shakespeare
    • a nipping and an eager air
  • (rfc-sense) Excited by desire in the pursuit of any object; ardent to pursue, perform, or obtain; keenly desirous; hotly longing; earnest; zealous; impetuous; vehement.
  • * Keble
    • When to her eager lips is brought / Her infant's thrilling kiss.
  • * Hawthorne
    • a crowd of eager and curious schoolboys
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=19 citation , passage=When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. […]. The captive made no resistance and came not only quietly but in a series of eager little rushes like a timid dog on a choke chain.}}
  • Brittle; inflexible; not ductile.
  • * John Locke
    • Gold will be sometimes so eager , as artists call it, that it will as little endure the hammer as glass itself.
  • (comptheory) Not employing lazy evaluation; calculating results immediately, rather than deferring calculation until they are required.
    • an eager algorithm
    Synonyms
    * raring
    Derived terms
    * eager beaver * eagerly * eagerness

    Etymology 2

    See (m).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (tidal bore).

    • External links

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    Anagrams

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