anxious

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for anxious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin anxius, from angō (“to cause pain, choke”); akin to Ancient Greek ἄγχω (ánkhō, “to choke”). See anger; angst.

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈaŋ(k)ʃəs/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈæŋ(k).ʃəs/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Hyphenation: anx‧ious

Adjective

anxious (comparative more anxious or anxiouser, superlative most anxious or anxiousest)

  1. Nervous and worried.
  2. Full of anxiety or disquietude; greatly concerned or solicitous, especially respecting something future or unknown.
    She was anxious to hear how her test results were.
    I could tell she was anxious as she was biting her nails.
    • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 55 Fifth Avenue, [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0056:
      Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess‎:
      Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.
    • 2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport:
      But, with United fans in celebratory mood as it appeared their team might snatch glory, they faced an anxious wait as City equalised in stoppage time.
  3. (of things) Accompanied with, or causing, anxiety; worrying.
    anxious labor
    There was an anxious wait before the results were revealed.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
      The sweet of life, from which God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares.
  4. Earnestly desirous.
    He is anxious to please, so you can count on him.
    All the voters were anxious to hear the election result.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Macaulay
      He sneers alike at those who are anxious to preserve and at those who are eager for reform.

Usage notes
  • Anxious is followed by for, about, concerning, etc., before the object of solicitude.

Synonyms
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Translations

Further reading
  • anxious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
  • anxious in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams
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