eagerness

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The state or quality of being eager; ardent desire.

   The things he had to tell about...were enough to make you almost tremble with excitement, when you heard all the intimate details from an animal charmer and realized with what thrilling eagerness and anxiety the whole busy underworld was working.

2. 2
   noun

   Tartness, sourness.

   Senvie, which is of a most biting and stinging tast, of a fierie effect,[…]serveth also to make a pretie dish of meat to be eaten, being boiled or stewed between too^([sic – meaning two]) little dishes in some convenient liquor, in such sort, as a man shall not feele it to bite at the tongues end, nor complaine of any eagernesse that it hath.

3. 3
   noun

   prompt willingness

4. 4
   noun

   a positive feeling of wanting to push ahead with something

Etymology

From Middle English egernesse, egrenesse; equivalent to eager + -ness.