Word.ws English Dictionary

eagre

/ˈeɪɡə(ɹ)/

eagre is the obsolete form of eager.

Meaning of eager

Adjective

eager (comparative more eager or eagerer, superlative most eager or eagerest)

  1. Desirous; keen to do or obtain something.
    • Stacey is very eager to go cycling this weekend.
    Synonyms:
    bursting
  2. Not employing lazy evaluation; calculating results immediately, rather than deferring calculation until they are required.
    • an eager algorithm
  3. (dated) Brittle; inflexible; not ductile.
    • gold itself will be sometimes so eager, (as artists call it), that it will as little endure the hammer as glass itself1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC
  4. (obsolete, literal) Sharp; sour; acid.
    • like eager droppings into milkc. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
  5. (figuratively, obsolete) Sharp; keen; bitter; severe.
    • If so thou thinkest, vex him with eager words.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

See all 9 meanings of eager

Noun

eagre (plural eagres)

  1. a tidal bore
    • A large wave like an eagre, diverging from its bow, was extending to either bank, swamping the tules and threatening to submerge the lower levees.1896, Bret Harte, In a Hollow of the Hills: and Other Tales, page 210
    Synonyms:
    tidal bore, bore

Synonyms of eagre

Forms of eagre

Adjective
comparativemore eagre
superlativemost eagre
Noun
pluraleagres
alternative formaegir
alternative formeager
alternative formeger
alternative formegre
alternative formeygre

Origin of eagre

See eager.

Not attested in Middle English; either from Old English *ēagor (“water, sea”) (attested in ēagorstrēam) or Old Norse ægir (“sea, ocean”); however, both possibilities fail to show the phonological outcome one would expect.

Words formed from eagre

Words that rhyme with eagre

Questions about eagre

What does eagre mean?
Eagre means a tidal bore.
What is eagre the obsolete form of?
Eagre is the obsolete form of eager.
What part of speech is eagre?
Eagre is a noun.
How do you pronounce eagre?
Eagre is pronounced /ˈeɪɡə(ɹ)/.
What is the plural of eagre?
The plural of eagre is eagres.

Words near eagre in the dictionary

  1. Eaglin
  2. eagling
  3. eagling out
  4. eagling up
  5. Eaglins
  6. eagre
  7. eagreness
  8. eagres
  9. EAI
  10. EAIS
  11. EAKC

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: eagre (page history and authors); eager (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-eagre.wav.

Cite this entry: “eagre.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/eagre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.