Eacles 
cid moths, peculiar to North and South Amer- 
ica, having short hind wings, short proboscis, 
simple antennas in the female, and the antennae 
of the male pectinate to a greater or less extent. 
E. imperialis is one of the largest and handsomest moths 
of North America, of a yellow color, with purplish-brown 
spots on the wings. The male is more purplish than the 
female. The larvae feed on the foliage of various forest- 
trees, and pupate in loose cocoons under ground. 
Bad-. See Ed-*. 
eadish, . See eddisli. 
-ese. [NL., etc., fern. pi. (sc. plantce, plants) of 
L. -CMS: see -eous, and cf. -acece.'] 1. In bot., a 
suffix used chiefly in the formation of tribal 
names and the names of other groups between 
the genus and the order. It also occurs as the 
termination of some ordinal names. 2. In 
eool., the termination of the names of various 
taxonomie groups : (a) regularly, of groups be- 
tween the genus and the subfamily; (b) irreg- 
ularly, of different groups above the family. 
In both cases -ece is used without implication of 
gender. 
eager 1 (e'ger), a. [< ME. eger, egre, < OF. 
eyre, aigre, F. aigre = Pr. agre = OSp. agre, 
Sp. agrio = Pg. It. agro, < L. acer (acr-), sharp, 
keen : see acid, acerb, etc. Cf . vinegar, alegar.] 
It. Sharp; sour; acid. 
This seed is eger and hot. Chaucer, Parson's Tale. 
Egrest fruits, and bitterest hearbs did mock 
Madera Sugars, and the Apricock. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., Eden. 
It doth posset 
And curd, like eager droppings into milk. 
Shak., Hamlet, 1. 6. 
2. Sharp; keen; biting; severe; bitter. [Ob- 
solete or archaic.] 
A more myghty and more egre medicine. 
Chaucer, Boethius, i. prose 6. 
If so thou think'st, vex him with eager words. 
Shalt., S Hen. VI., ii. 6. 
It is a nipping and an eager air. Shak., Hamlet, 1. 4. 
The cold most eager and sharpe till March, little winde, 
nor snow, except in the end of Aprill. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 405. 
3. Sharply inclined or anxious ; sharp-set; ex- 
cited by ardent desire; impatiently longing; 
vehement; keen: as, the soldiers were eager to 
engage the enemy ; men are eager in the pur- 
suit of wealth ; eager spirits ; eager zeal. 
Manly he demeyned him to make his men egre, 
Bad hem alle be bold & busiliche lijt . 
William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 3836. 
All the ardent and daring spirits in the parliamentary 
party were eager to have Hampden at their head. 
Macaulay, Nugent's Hampden. 
As our train of horses surmounted each succeeding emi- 
nence, every one was eager to be the first who should 
catch a glimpse of the Holy City. 
R. Curzon, Monast. in the Levant, p. 144. 
4. Manifesting sharpness of desire or strength 
of feeling ; marked by great earnestness : as, 
an eager look or manner; eager words. 
She sees a world stark blind to what employs 
Her eager thought, and feeds her flowing joys. 
Camper, Charity, 1. 405. 
5t. Brittle. 
Gold itself will be sometimes so eager . . . that it will 
as little endure the hammer as glass itself. 
Locke, Human Understanding, III. vi. 35. 
=Syn. 3. Fervent, fervid, warm, glowing, zealous, for- 
ward, enthusiastic, impatient, sanguine, animated. 
eager 1 !, *> t. [< ME. egren; from the adj.] 
To make eager ; urge ; incite. 
The nedy poverte of his houshold mihte rather egren 
hym to don felonyes. Chaucer, Boethius, iv. prose 6. 
He angurt hym full euyll, & egerd hym with, 
ffor the dethe of the dere his dole was the more. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 7329. 
eager 2 , eagre (e'ger), n. [Chiefly dial, or ar- 
chaic, and hence of unstable form and spell- 
ing, but prop, eager; also written (obs., archa- 
ic, or dial.) eagre, eger, egor, egre, eygre, aigre, 
ager, liigre, liygre, and with alteration of g to 
k, aker, acker, etc., < ME. aker, akyr, a cor- 
ruption of AS. *eagor, *egor, only in comp. 
edgor-, egor-stredm, ocean-stream, egor-here, the 
'ocean-host,' a flood, = Icel. cegir, the ocean, 
the sea, in myth, the giant JEgir, the husband 
of Ran, answering to both Oceanus and Po- 
seidon in Greek mythology.] A sudden and 
formidable influx and surging of the tide in a 
high wave or waves, up a river or an estuary ; 
a bore, as in the Severn, the Hooghly, and the 
Bay of Fundy. 
His manly heart . . . 
Its more than common transport could not hide ; 
But like an eagre rode in triumph o'er the tide. 
Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis, 1. 134. 
Sea-tempest is the Jb'tun Aegir ; . . . and now to this 
day, on our river Trent, as I hear, the Nottingham barge- 
1814 
men, when the river is in a certain flooded state, call it 
Eager; they cry out, "Have a care; there is the Eager 
coming." Carlyle. 
A mighty eygre raised his crest. 
Jean Ingelow, High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire. 
eagerly (e'ger-li), adv. [< ME. egerly, egurly, 
egreliche, etc. ; < eager* + -fy 2 .] If. With sharp- 
ness or keenness ; bitterly ; keenly. 
And thanne welled water for wikked werkes, 
Enerlich ernynge out of menues eyen. 
Piers Plouiman(E), xix. 876. 
Abundance of rain froze so eagerly as it fell, that it seem- 
ed the depth of winter had of a sudden been come in. 
Knolles, Hist. Turks. 
2. In an eager manner ; with ardor or vehe- 
mence ; with keen desire, as for the attainment 
of something sought or pursued ; with avidity 
or zeal. 
[He] rode a-gein hym full egerly, and smote hym with 
all his myght. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 158. 
And egrelich he loked on me and ther-fore I spared 
To asken hym any more ther-of , and badde hym full fayre 
To discreue the fruit that so faire hangeth. 
Piers Plowman (B), xvi. 64. 
How eagerly ye follow my disgraces, 
As if it fed ye ! Shak., Hen. VIII., iii. 2. 
To the holy war how fast and eagerly did men go ! 
South, Sermons. 
eagerness (e'ger-nes), . It. Tartness; sour- 
ness; sharpness. 2. Keen or vehement desire 
in the pursuit or for the attainment of some- 
thing, or a manifestation of such desire ; ardent 
tendency; zeal; fervor: as, to pursue happiness 
or wealth with eagerness; eagerness of manner 
or speech. 
She knew her distance, and did angle for me, 
Madding my eagerness with her restraint. 
Shak., All's Well, v. S. 
The eagerness and strong bent of the mind after know- 
ledge, if not warily regulated, is often an hinderance to it. 
Locke. 
What we call our despair is often only the painful eager- 
ness of unfed hope. George Eliot, Middlemarch, ii. 81. 
=Syn. 2. Earnestness, Avidity, Eagerness, Zeal, Enthu- 
siasm, ardor, vehemence, impetuosity, heartiness, long- 
ing, impatience. The flrst five words may all denote strong 
and worthy movements of feeling and purpose toward a de- 
sired object. In this field eagerness has either a physical 
or a moral application ; with acidity the physical applica- 
tion is primary ; earnestness, zeal, and enthusiasm have 
only the moral sense. Avidity represents a desire for food, 
primarily physical, figuratively mental : as, to read a new 
novel with avidity; it rarely goes beyond that degree of 
extension. Eagerness emphasizes an intense desire, gen- 
erally for specific things, although it may stand also as 
a trait of character; it tends to produce corresponding 
keenness in the pursuit of its object. Earnestness de- 
notes a more sober feeling, proceeding from reason, con- 
viction of duty, or the less violent emotions, but likely to 
prove stronger and more permanent than any of the others. 
The word has at times a special reference to effort ; it 
implies solidity, sincerity, energy, and conviction of the 
laudableness of the object sought ; it is contrasted with 
eagerness in that it affects the whole character. Zeal 
is by derivation a bubbling up with heat; it is naturally, 
therefore, an active quality, passionate and yet pnerally 
sustained, an abiding ardor or fervent devotion in any 
unselfish cause. Enthusiasm is so far redeemed from 
its early suggestion of extravagance that it denotes pre- 
sumably a trait of character more general than eagerness 
or zeal, more lively than earnestness, a lofty quickness of 
feeling and purpose in the pursuit of laudable things un- 
der the guidance of reason and conscience ; thus it differs 
from zeal, which still generally implies a poorly balanced 
judgment. 
The nobles in great earnestness are going 
All to the senate-house. Shak. , Cor. , iv. 6. 
I lent her some modern works : all these she read with 
avidity. Charlotte Bronte, The Professor, xviii. 
So Gawain, looking at the villainy done, 
Forbore, but in his heat and eagerness 
Trembled and quivered. 
Tennyson, Pelleas and Ettarre. 
It was the sense that the cause of education was the 
cause of religion itself that inspired JSlfred and Dunstan 
alike with their zeal for teaching. 
J. R. Green, Conq. of Eng., p. 325. 
Truth is never to be expected from authors whose under- 
standings are warped with enthusiasm; for they judge all 
actions, and their causes, by their own perverse principles, 
and a crooked line can never be the measure of a straight 
one. Dryden, Bed. of Plutarch's Lives. 
There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes hu- 
man nature rise above itself in acts of bravery and heroism. 
A. Hamilton, Works, II. 116. 
eagle (e'gl), n. [Early mod. E. also egle; < ME. 
egle, < OF. egte, aigle, F. aigle = Pr. aigla = Sp. 
aguila = Pg. aguia = It. aquila, < L. aquila, an 
eagle (prob. so called from its dark-brown color), 
fern, of aquilus, dark-colored, brown (cf. Lith. 
aklas, blind) : see Aquila, aquiline, etc. The na- 
tive E. name is earn : see earn 3 .] 1. Properly, 
a very large diurnal raptorial bird of the fam- 
HyFalconidaianA genus Aquila (which see), hav- 
ing the feet feathered to the toes, and no tooth 
to the bill, which is straight for the length of 
the cere. There are about 9 species, all confined to 
the old world except the golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetus, 
eagle 
which ranges also in North America. This is the type- 
species, to which the term originally attached ; it is 3 feet 
or more in length, 
of a dark-brown 
color, deriving the 
epithet golden 
from the ruddy- 
brown feathers of 
the back of the 
neck. It preys on 
lambs, hares, rab- 
bits, various birds, 
such as grouse, and 
carrion. Other no- 
table species are the 
imperial eagle, A. 
lieliaea; the Rus- 
sian eagle, A. mo- 
<!<liuk; the spotted 
eagle, A. mamlata 
(or ncEvia). From 
its size, strength, 
rapacity, and pow- 
ers of flight and vi- 
sion, the eagle has 
been called the king 
of birds; but its 
prowess is greatly 
exaggerated. By 
the ancients it was 
called the bird of 
Jove, and it was 
borne on the Roman standards. Many nations, as France 
under the Bonapartes, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, have 
adopted it as the national emblem. In heraldry it ranks 
as one of the most noble bearings in coat-armor. 
There myglite men the ryal egle fynde, 
That with his sharpe lok persith the sunne ; 
Golden Eagle (Aguila chrysaltus). 
And othere eglis of a lowere kynde, 
Of whiche that clerkis wel devyse cunne. 
Chaucer, Parliament of Fowls, 1. 830. 
So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain, 
No more through rolling clouds to soar again, 
View'd his own feather on the fatal dart, 
And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart. 
Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, 1. 826. 
2. A member of the genus Haliaetus, which com- 
prises the fishing-eagles, sea-eagles, or earns, 
resembling the eagle proper in size and form, 
but having the shank bare of feathers and 
scaly: such as the white- or bald-headed eagle, 
or bald eagle, H. leucocephalus, the national 
emblem of the United States; the white-tailed 
eagle, H. albicilla; the pelagic eagle, H. pela- 
gicus, etc. 3. A name of many raptorial birds 
larger than the hawk and the buzzard, only 
distantly related, as the harpy eagle, booted 
eagle, etc. A number of genera of such large hawks 
are sometimes grouped with the true eagles in a sub- 
family Aqnilinoe (which see). 
4. [cap.'] An ancient northern constellation be- 
tween Cygnus and Sagittarius, containing the 
bright Star Altair. It seems to be shown on Babylo- 
nian stones of high antiquity, and the statement still 
current that it almost touches the equinoctial refers to 
the position of that circle about 2000 B. 0. At present 
the constellation, enlarged by the addition of Autinous 
shortly after the Christian era, extends 20 north and 13 
south of the equator. See Aquila, 2. 
6. A military ensign or standard surmounted 
by the figure of an eagle. It is especially associated 
with ancient Rome, though borne, with various modifica- 
tions, by certain modern nations, as France under the 
flrst and second empires. 
This utter'd, overboard he leaps, and with his Eagle 
feircly advanc'd runs upon the Enemy. 
Milton, Hist. Eng., ii. 
What ! shall a Roman sink in soft repose, 
And tamely see the Britons aid his foes? 
See them secure the rebel Gaul supply ; 
Spurn his vain eagles and his power defy? 
Langhorne, Ccesar's Dream. 
6. A lectern, usually of wood or brass, the up- 
per part of which is in the shape of an eagle 
with outstretched wings supporting a book-rest, 
the eagle being the symbol of Saint John the 
Evangelist. 
[The minister] read from the eagle. Thackeray. 
7. A gold coin of the United States, of the 
value of 10 dollars, weighing 258 grains troy, 
900 fine, and equivalent to 2 Is. Id. sterling. 
8. In arch., a name for a pediment. 9. In 
the game of roulette, a spot, outside the regu- 
lar 36 numbers, upon which is the picture of 
an eagle. If this is the winning number, the bank takes 
in all bets except those made on that particular one. See 
roulette. Also called eagle-bird. American eagle. See 
bald eaqle. Bald eagle, or bald fa m, a common though 
misapplied name for the white-headed eagle of North 
America, Haliaetus leucocephalus. This is the eagle which 
has been adopted as the national emblem on the arms of 
the United States, and is figured on some of its coins, be- 
ing popularly called "the American eagle," "the spread 
eagle," "the national bird," "the bird of freedom," etc. 
It is about 3 feet Ions;, dark-brown or blackish when 
adult, with pure-white head and tail ; the shank is partly 
nakt'd ami yellow, by which mark the species may be dis- 
tinguished in any plumage from the golden eagle, Aquila 
chrysaetvs. Also called white- or bald-headed eagle. See 
cut on following page. Black eagle, (a) The golden 
eagle, Aquila chri/saetus. (b) The young of the bald 
eagle, Haliaetus leucocephalus. Calumet eagle. See 
