keen

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Often with a prepositional phrase, or with to and an infinitive

   Often with a prepositional phrase, or with to and an infinitive: showing a quick and ardent responsiveness or willingness; eager, enthusiastic, interested.

   • I’m keen on computers.
   • I’m keen on you.
   • She’s keen to learn another language.
2. 2

   Fierce, intense, vehement.

   • This boy has a keen appetite.
   • [N]euer did I know / A creature that did beare the ſhape of man / So keene and greedy to confound a man.
   • Her love of a good dinner herself, and her still keener love of the approbation she won by setting it before others, kept up perpetual warfare with her savingness […]
3. 3

   Having a fine edge or point

   Having a fine edge or point; sharp.

   • The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen As is the Razors edge, inuisible: […]
   • Come thick Night, / And pall thee in the dunneſt ſmoake of Hell, / That my keene Knife ſee not the Wound it makes, / Nor Heauen peepe through the Blanket of the darke, / To cry, hold, hold.
4. ›+ 12 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Acute of mind, having or expressing mental acuteness

      Acute of mind, having or expressing mental acuteness; penetrating, sharp.

      • For when we rage, aduiſe is often ſeene By blunting vs to make our wits more keene.
      • So, when remote futurity is brought / Before the keen inquiry of her thought, / A terrible sagacity informs / The poet's heart; […]
   2. 5

      Acrimonious, bitter, piercing.

      • keen satire or sarcasm
      • O lawfull let it be / That I have roome with Rome to curſe a while, / Good Father Cardinall, cry thou Amen / To my keene curſes; for without my wrong / There is no tongue hath power to curſe him right.
   3. 6

      Of cold, wind, etc.

      Of cold, wind, etc.: cutting, penetrating, piercing, sharp.

      • a keen wind
      • the cold is very keen
      • Chearful at morn he wakes from ſhort repoſe, / Breaſts the keen air, and carolls as he goes; […]
   4. 7

      Of prices, extremely low as to be competitive.

   5. 8

      Marvelous.

      • I just got this peachy keen new dress.
      • Oh, but they're weird and they're wonderful / Oh, Bennie, she's really keen / She's got electric boots, a mohair suit / You know I read it in a magazine, oh / B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets
      • Well our hosts here attacked us with a fantastic Dismodulating Anti Phase stun ray and then invited us to this amazingly keen meal by way of making it up to us.
   6. 9

      Brave, courageous

      Brave, courageous; audacious, bold.

   7. 10

      To make cold, to sharpen.

      • This is the pureſt exerciſe of health, / The kind refreſher of the ſummer-heats; / Nor, when cold Winter keens the brightening flood, / Would I weak-ſhivering linger on the brink.
   8. 11

      A prolonged wail for a deceased person.

   9. 12

      To utter a keen.

      • Last night he had put down too much Potheen / (A vulgar blend of Methyl and Benzene) / That, at some Wake, he might the better keen. / (Keen—meaning 'brisk'? Nay, here the Language warps: / 'Tis singing bawdy Ballads to a Corpse.)
   10. 13

       To utter with a loud wailing voice or wordless cry.

       • Pelicans fly below us with stiffly formal strokes, and gulls wheel and keen.
       • Satiran, lost in his own grief, shuddered once, then lifted his head to the sky and keened out his loss to the heavens.
   11. 14

       To mourn.

       • I keened my Gran, I keened my babies, but then my words poured out of my grief. I don't have the full heart like that for Owen, sorry as I am for his goin. Without the heavy grief on me I can maybe think of the words easier.
       • She sniffed and nodded and cried and wailed and keened for her husband, who would never come back to her.
   12. 15

       A surname.

The neighborhood

• synonympenetrating
• synonymshrewd
• synonymintelligent
• neighborkeener