anxious

adjective

1. 1

   Nervous and worried.

2. 2

   Having a feeling of anxiety or disquietude; extremely concerned, especially about something that will happen in the future or that is unknown.

   She was anxious to hear how her test results were.

   I could tell she was anxious as she was biting her nails.

   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.

   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.

3. 3

   Accompanied with, or causing, anxiety; worrying.

   anxious labor

   There was an anxious wait before the results were revealed.

   The sweet of life, from which God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares.

4. 4

   Earnestly desirous.

   He is anxious to please, so you can count on him.

   All the voters were anxious to hear the election result.

   He sneers alike at those who are anxious to preserve and at those who are eager for reform.

Forms

comparative

more anxious, anxiouser

superlative

most anxious, anxiousest