Eager to get maiden at ground (8)
I believe the answer is:
animated
'eager' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'get maiden at ground' is the wordplay.
'get' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'ground' indicates an anagram (grind the letters ).
'maiden'+'at' is 'maidenat'.
'maidenat' with letters rearranged gives 'ANIMATED'.
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for animated that I've seen before include "Fired" , "Enlivened (like a cartoon film)" , "Diamante (anag)" , "Lively in diamante" , "I and mate become lively" .)