eager beaver
a highly motivated person
TRANSLATION
eager beaver = das Arbeitstier, der Übereifrige
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The new mayor of Chicago approached his maiden voyage like an EAGER BEAVER. He arrived at 9:30 a.m., 30 minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin, with a bottle of water in his hand and a gleam in his eye.
(Chicago Sun-Times newspaper)
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I was very excited about the idea that I could be an idealist, that I could be my age, the EAGER BEAVER who had hope in the justice system and the one who gets disappointed just like the audience.
- actress Elisabeth Rohm
Did you
know?
eager beaver
idiom
- a person who is willing to work hard
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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Beavers are legendary hard workers, sometimes to the dismay of land owners. With an unparalleled work ethic and teeth that can cut through wood like a chain saw, they can take a stream or creek and dam it up in no time. While giving themselves a nice new home, the beaver's industrious nature can leave farmers without a source of water in remote areas. That's why we like to refer to hard working people as eager beavers.
This phrase can also be used as a simile: He's eager as a beaver. These expressions add great colour to a language. Here are a few other common examples:
- busy as a bee
- quiet as a mouse
- free as a bird
- hungry as a horse
- drunk as a skunk
- blind as a bat
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SYNONYMS
achiever, hard worker, go-getter, fireball, dynamo, hot shot, mover and shaker
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"You might like to ask Bob to do it, he's a real eager beaver."
