anxious
American Heritage Dictionary:
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anx·ious
(ăngk'shəs, ăng'shəs) 
adj.
anxiousness anx'ious·ness n.
adj.
- Uneasy and apprehensive about an uncertain event or matter; worried.
- Attended with, showing, or causing anxiety: spent an anxious night waiting for the test results.
- Usage Problem. Eagerly or earnestly desirous.
[From Latin ānxius, from angere, to torment.]
anxiously anx'ious·ly adv.anxiousness 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.
Fowler's Modern English Usage:
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anxious
Anxiety, 'uneasiness or trouble of mind' (first recorded in a work of c.1525 by Sir Thomas More) underlies the traditional meaning of anxious, and in the 20th century the development of psychiatric concepts such as anxiety neurosis have strengthened the belief that a morbid state of mind is involved in the terms. In the 18th century, anxious came to mean 'full of desire and endeavour' and was constructed with to; the phrase anxious to please appeared in Robert Blair's poem The Grave (1743), and Lord Nelson declared in 1794 that 'The General seems as anxious as any of us to expedite the fall of the place'. Examples:
No one seemed very anxious to come up with the spondulicks—Private Eye, 1980
She's very anxious that you should like her—A. N. Wilson, 1982
There are a number of men only too anxious to buy themselves a knighthood who might be most attracted to a project that catches the public sympathy—Claire Rayner, 1991.
| anticipate, anterior, antenna | |
| any, apart from, aside from, apartheid |
Roget's Thesaurus:
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anxious
adjective
- In a state of anxiety or uneasiness: agitated, concerned, distressed, nervous, solicitous, uneasy, unsettled. See feelings.
Antonyms by Answers.com:
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anxious
adj
Definition: eager
Antonyms: dreading, unwilling
adj
Definition: worried, tense
Antonyms: assured, calm, content, cool, happy, indifferent, peaceful, tranquil, unconcerned, unworried
Word Tutor:
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anxiously
IN BRIEF: adv. - Uneasy and apprehensive about something uncertain.
"How long does getting thin take?" Pooh asked anxiously.
— Alan Alexander Milne, Source: Pooh's Little Instruction Book
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Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'anxious'
Translations:
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Anxious
Dansk (Danish)
adj. - ængstelig, urolig
Nederlands (Dutch)
bezorgd, ongerust, verlangend, zorgwekkend
Français (French)
adj. - inquiet, anxieux, angoissé, inquiétant, alarmant, angoissant, impatient, désireux de, avide de
Deutsch (German)
adj. - ängstlich, besorgt, sehnlich
Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - ανήσυχος, ανησυχών, ανυπόμονος, αδημονών
Italiano (Italian)
imbarazzato, ansioso, inquieto, timoroso
Português (Portuguese)
adj. - ansioso, inquieto, aflito
Русский (Russian)
беспокоящийся, озабоченный, опасающийся, стремящийся
Español (Spanish)
adj. - ansioso, inquieto, anheloso, deseoso, temeroso, asustado, preocupado, perturbado
Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - ängslig, angelägen
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
忧虑的, 渴望的, 热心的
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 憂慮的, 渴望的, 熱心的
한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 걱정하는, 갈망하여
日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 心配な, 案じて, 不安に満ちた, 切望して
العربيه (Arabic)
(صفه) قلق البال, مثير للقلق, متلهف
עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - חרד, דואג, מדאיג, משתוקק
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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