Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Uneasy and apprehensive about an uncertain event or matter; worried.
- adj. Attended with, showing, or causing anxiety: spent an anxious night waiting for the test results.
- adj. Usage Problem Eagerly or earnestly desirous.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Full of anxiety or solicitude; greatly troubled or solicitous, especially about something future or unknown; being in painful suspense: applied to persons.
- Attended with, proceeding from, or manifesting solicitude or uneasiness: applied to things: as, anxious forebodings; anxious labor.
- Earnestly desirous or solicitous: as, anxious to please; anxious to do right. Anxious is followed by for or about before the object of solicitude. The former is generally used when the thing is something desired to happen or be done; the latter of a person, creature, or situation: as, anxious for his release; anxious about his health or about him. Synonyms Careful, uneasy, unquiet, restless, troubled, disturbed, apprehensive.
Wiktionary
- adj. Full of anxiety or disquietude; greatly concerned or solicitous, especially respecting something future or unknown; being in painful suspense;—applied to persons; as, anxious for the issue of a battle.
- adj. Accompanied with, or causing, anxiety; worrying;—applied to things; as, anxious labor.
- adj. Earnestly desirous; as, anxious to please.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Full of anxiety or disquietude; greatly concerned or solicitous, esp. respecting something future or unknown; being in painful suspense; -- applied to persons.
- adj. Accompanied with, or causing, anxiety; worrying; -- applied to things.
- adj. Earnestly desirous.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. eagerly desirous
- adj. causing or fraught with or showing anxiety
Etymologies
- From Latin ānxius, from angere, to torment; see angh- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Jack had pulled the van up against the curb and was sitting in the passenger seat, his expression anxious, his cell phone in his hand, and a wide-eyed Eerie in his lap.”
“Katie stepped in front of Britt, her expression anxious.”
“Katie leaned across the seat, her expression anxious.”
“It gives us the English word "anxious", signalling a place that presses against you, where the walls are tight, and you might be too big to get through.”
““The door’s locked,” zh’Thiin said, her expression anxious as she regarded him, “but I don’t know how long it will keep them out.””
Simon & Schuster: Star Trek: Typhon Pact Paths of Disharmony
“The 33 miners, all of whom had spent the past 12 hours in anxious vigil gathered at the section of the tunnel where the drill bit entered, celebrated.”
The Washington Post: Chilean miners closer to freedom with rescue tunnel complete
“Rats and dogs showing such behavior after stress are called anxious or depressed.”
“Bernie Ecclestone looked like a man in anxious search of his own personal run-off area as he inspected the facilities at Formula One's new circuit, Yeongam, in South Korea yesterday.”
The Guardian: Bernie Ecclestone's circus struggles to bed down in F1's Blackpool
“The native sailors formed in anxious groups amidships and for'ard, where they talked in low voices and gazed apprehensively at the ominous sky and the equally ominous sea that breathed in long, low, oily undulations.”
“So anxious is Goldberg to dismiss the idea that a part of the right is “anti-education” that he actually attributes arguments to me that I never made.”
The Washington Post: A response to Jonah Goldberg on anti-elitism
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘anxious’.
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The Secret Garden
sickly, fretful, toddle, cross, stammer, manor, slink, grind, disdain, imploringly, wring, wailing and 30 more...
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Greg's List
precarious, transient, evanescence, impermanence, fugacity, transitoriness, volatility, caducity, span, interregnum, effervescent, mine and 63 more...
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Deadlinitis
How do approaching (or missed) deadlines make you feel?
entrained, untraveling, wordasphyxia, inspired, anxious, guilty, concentrated, panic, blackout, focused, insomnia, hunger and 17 more...
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Words Stephenie Meyer Overuses
A collection of words author Stephenie Meyer overuses and abuses in her 'Twilight' series of young adult vampire fiction. Every time you read one of these words in her books, you will GRIMACE and C...
chagrin, grimace, chuckle, smirk, whispered, lope, scintillating, marble, topaz, smoldering, smolder, perfect and 30 more...
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Ansh grade 5
abolish, absurd, abuse, access, accomplish, achievement, alternate, altitude, antagonist, antonym, anxious, apparent and 4 more...
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school starts in 2 days
excited, worried, nervous, anxious, already tired, what to wear, creative, technology, homework, grading
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