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Eager vs Whatever - What's the difference?

eager | whatever |

As adjectives the difference between eager and whatever

is that eager is sharp; sour; acid while whatever is unexceptional or unimportant; blah.

As a noun eager

is alternative form of lang=en (tidal bore).

As a determiner whatever is

no matter which; for any.

As an interjection whatever is

a holophrastic expression used discourteously to indicate that the speaker does not consider the matter worthy of further discussion.

As a pronoun whatever is

anything; used to indicate that the speaker does not care about options.

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).
  • Anagrams

    *

    whatever

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (lb) Unexceptional or unimportant; blah.
  • *1996 , "Mathias", Lake Placid Comments'' (discussion on Internet newsgroup ''rec.music.phish )
  • *:All in all, I guess I shouldn't be complaining, but the rest of the show, imho, was very whatever -ish.
  • *2007 , (Avril Lavigne), , (The Best Damn Thing) ,
  • *:She's like so whatever  / You can do so much better
  • (lb) At all, absolutely, whatsoever.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
  • Determiner

    (en determiner)
  • No matter which; for any
  • (relative) Anything that.
  • * 1734 , (Alexander Pope), (An Essay on Man)
  • And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.
  • *
  • Whatever utility the work may have outside of its stated boundaries will be largely because of such a nonprovincial approach.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= The Evolution of Eyeglasses , passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}

    Derived terms

    * whatever creams your twinkie * whatever floats your boat * whatever it takes * whateverism * whateverness

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (colloquial, dismissive) A holophrastic expression used discourteously to indicate that the speaker does not consider the matter worthy of further discussion.
  • Parent: For the last time, brush your teeth!
    Child: Whatever !

    Usage notes

    * Tone of voice is particularly important here in playing up or playing down the dismissive quality of the word.

    Synonyms

    * so what * whoopee do * meh

    Pronoun

    (English Pronouns)
  • Anything; used to indicate that the speaker does not care about options.
  • I'll do whatever I can.
    Do you want Chinese or Mexican for lunch today? — Whatever .

    Statistics

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    Anagrams

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