Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
anxious - 5 dictionary results

anx⋅ious

[angk-shuhs, ang-]
–adjective
1. full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune; greatly worried; solicitous: Her parents were anxious about her poor health.
2. earnestly desirous; eager (usually fol. by an infinitive or for): anxious to please; anxious for our happiness.
3. attended with or showing solicitude or uneasiness: anxious forebodings.

Origin:
1615–25; < L anxius worried, distressed, deriv. of angere to strangle, pain, distress; cf. anguish, -ous


anx⋅ious⋅ly, adverb
anx⋅ious⋅ness, noun


1. concerned, disturbed, apprehensive, fearful, uneasy.


1. calm, confident. 2. reluctant, hesitant.


The earliest sense of anxious (in the 17th century) was “troubled” or “worried”: We are still anxious for the safety of our dear sons in battle. Its meaning “earnestly desirous, eager” arose in the mid-18th century: We are anxious to see our new grandson. Some insist that anxious must always convey a sense of distress or worry and object to its use in the sense of “eager,” but such use is fully standard.
anx·ious   (āngk'shəs, āng'shəs)   
adj.  
  1. Uneasy and apprehensive about an uncertain event or matter; worried.
  2. Attended with, showing, or causing anxiety: spent an anxious night waiting for the test results.
  3. Usage Problem Eagerly or earnestly desirous.

[From Latin ānxius, from angere, to torment; see angh- in Indo-European roots.]
anx'ious·ly adv., anx'ious·ness n.
Usage Note: Anxious has a long history of use roughly as a synonym for eager, but many prefer that anxious be used only when its subject is worried or uneasy about the anticipated event. In the traditional view, one may say We are anxious to see the strike settled soon but not We are anxious to see the new show of British sculpture at the museum. Fifty-two percent of the Usage Panel rejects anxious in the latter sentence. But general adoption of anxious to mean "eager" is understandable, at least in colloquial discourse, since it provides a means of adding emotional urgency to an assertion. It implies that the subject so strongly desires a certain outcome that frustration of that desire will lead to unhappiness. In this way, it resembles the informal adjective dying in sentences such as I'm dying to see your new baby.

Anxious

Anx"ious\ ([a^][ng]k"sh[u^]s), a. [L. anxius, fr. angere to cause pain, choke; akin to Gr. 'a`gchein to choke. See Anger.]

1. Full of anxiety or disquietude; greatly concerned or solicitous, esp. respecting something future or unknown; being in painful suspense; -- applied to persons; as, anxious for the issue of a battle.

2. Accompanied with, or causing, anxiety; worrying; -- applied to things; as, anxious labor.

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

3. Earnestly desirous; as, anxious to please.

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

Note: Anxious is followed by for, about, concerning, etc., before the object of solicitude.

Syn: Solicitous; careful; uneasy; unquiet; restless; concerned; disturbed; watchful.
Language Translation for : anxious
Spanish: ansioso, preocupado,
German: besorgt,
Japanese: 心配して

anxious 
1623, from L. anxius "solicitous, uneasy, troubled in mind," from ang(u)ere "choke, cause distress" (see anger). The same image is in S.Cr. tjeskoba "anxiety," lit. "tightness, narrowness."

Main Entry: anx·ious
Pronunciation: 'a[ng](k)-sh&s
Function: adjective
1 : characterized by extreme uneasiness of mind or brooding fearabout some contingency
2 : characterized by, resulting from, or causing anxiety anxious and low-anxious groups—E. R. Hilgard & R. C. Atkinson>
Search another word or see anxious on Thesaurus | Reference