Definition of "alacrity" []

• Cheerful willingness; eagerness. (noun)
• Speed or quickness; celerity. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The party gathered itself up with alacrity from the grass."
• "Moreover, simply recall the alacrity with which President Bush and his spin operatives seized upon each of these so-called "milestones" to fling Panglossian excrement into the collective eyes of America's dupes, in order to rationalize away a lost war and all the unnecessary blood on his hands."
• "Finally someone (we hope it was not Judith) called her number -- sixty-eight, and she sprang to the chalk line with what is usually termed alacrity, but it really sounded much more ominous."