bright-eyed and bushy-tailed

1. Eager and alert, as in Here is my new kindergarten class, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The allusion here is to the appearance of a squirrel, which with its beady eyes and bushy tail looks ready for anything. [1930s]

Example Sentences

I do think a lot of times female protagonists have been very young and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and very plucky.

From Salon

I do think a lot of times female protagonists have been very young and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and very plucky.

From Salon

Obviously with Marge, you can tell she’s somebody who is kind of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and finds herself in this place and hasn’t had a lot of experience.

From Los Angeles Times

While some of us may be going into 2024 bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Trump’s legal team seems to have spent the first week of the new year hunkered down with court filings.

From Slate

Not many of Bridges’ students, for instance, are as “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed” as she was in her first year.

From Slate

Related Words

• bouncy 
• bright 
• bubbly 
• cheerful 
• cheery 
• jaunty 
• lively 
• sunny