KEEN

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does keen mean? 

• KEEN (noun)
  The noun KEEN has 1 sense:

1. a funeral lament sung with loud wailing

  Familiarity information: KEEN used as a noun is very rare.

• KEEN (adjective)
  The adjective KEEN has 5 senses:

1. having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions

2. intense or sharp

3. very good

4. painful as if caused by a sharp instrument

5. having a sharp cutting edge or point

  Familiarity information: KEEN used as an adjective is common.

• KEEN (verb)
  The verb KEEN has 1 sense:

1. express grief verbally

  Familiarity information: KEEN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• KEEN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A funeral lament sung with loud wailing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("keen" is a kind of...):

coronach; dirge; lament; requiem; threnody (a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person)

Domain region:

Emerald Isle; Hibernia; Ireland (an island comprising the republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland)

Derivation:

keen (express grief verbally)

• KEEN (adjective)

Comparative: keener   
Superlative: keenest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions

Synonyms:

acute; discriminating; incisive; keen; knifelike; penetrating; penetrative; piercing; sharp

Context example:

frequent penetrative observations

Similar:

perceptive (having the ability to perceive or understand; keen in discernment)

Derivation:

keenness (a quick and penetrating intelligence)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Intense or sharp

Synonyms:

exquisite; keen

Context example:

felt exquisite pleasure

Similar:

intense (possessing or displaying a distinctive feature to a heightened degree)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Very good

Synonyms:

bang-up; bully; corking; cracking; dandy; great; groovy; keen; neat; nifty; not bad; old; peachy; slap-up; smashing; swell

Context example:

we had a grand old time

Similar:

good (having desirable or positive qualities especially those suitable for a thing specified)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Painful as if caused by a sharp instrument

Synonyms:

cutting; keen; knifelike; lancinate; lancinating; piercing; stabbing

Context example:

lancinating pain

Similar:

sharp (keenly and painfully felt; as if caused by a sharp edge or point)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Having a sharp cutting edge or point

Context example:

a keen blade

Similar:

sharp (having or made by a thin edge or sharp point; suitable for cutting or piercing)

Derivation:

keenness (thinness of edge or fineness of point)

• KEEN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they keen    ... he / she / it keens   
Past simple: keened   
Past participle: keened   
-ing form: keening   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Express grief verbally

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

keen; lament

Context example:

we lamented the death of the child

Hypernyms (to "keen" is one way to...):

express emotion; express feelings (give verbal or other expression to one's feelings)

"Keen" entails doing...:

grieve; sorrow (feel grief)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

keen (a funeral lament sung with loud wailing)

 Context examples 

Thereafter they spoke no more, though their ears were keen for the hunting-cries that continued to rise behind them.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Her keen eyes filled, and when she spoke again, it was in a voice that could be beautifully soft and kind when she chose to make it so.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

There were ten thousand rebels round us, and they were as keen as a set of terriers round a rat-cage.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I beg your pardon,” observed my aunt with a keen look.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Never had he read fiction with so keen zest as he studied these books.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I looked towards the knoll: there he lay, still as a prostrate column; his face turned to me: his eye beaming watchful and keen.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She read from the New Testament, and he took keen interest in the prodigal son and the thief on the cross.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

But suddenly I was aware of that which his keener senses had already distinguished.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We feed him once a day, and not too much then, so that he is always as keen as mustard.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her appreciation of the ridiculous was keen, and in all things she unerringly saw and felt, where it existed, the touch of sham, the overshading, the overtone.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)