jats:titleABSTRACT</jats:title> jats:pWe develop a fully non-linear approximation to the short-wavelength limit of eccentric waves in astrophysical discs, based on the averaged Lagrangian method of Whitham. In this limit there is a separation of scales between the rapidly varying eccentric wave and the background disc. Despite having small eccentricities, such rapidly varying waves can be highly non-linear, potentially approaching orbital intersection, and this can result in strong pressure gradients in the disc. We derive conditions for the steepening of non-linearity and eccentricity as the waves propagate in a radially structured disc in this short-wavelength limit and show that the behaviour of the solution can be bounded by the behaviour of the WKB solution to the linearized equations.</jats:p>