keen

A sharp cleaver has a cutting edge that is keen (etymology 1, sense 3)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kiːn/
• (General American) enPR: kēn, IPA^(key): /kin/

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• Rhymes: -iːn
• Homophones: Keane, Keene

From Middle English kene (“bold, brave, sharp”), from Old English cēne (“keen, fierce, bold, brave, warlike, powerful; learned, clever, wise”), from Proto-Germanic *kōniz (“knowledgeable, skilful, experienced, clever, capable”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”). Cognate with Danish køn (“handsome, pretty”), Dutch kien (“smart, wise, able”), koen (“daring, valiant, doughty, courageous”), German kühn (“bold, daring, audacious, hardy, valiant, venturesome”), Icelandic kænn (“wise, crafty, clever, able”), Scots keen (“lively, brisk; avaricious”). Related to Old English cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”). More at cunning, can.

• keene, kene (obsolete)

keen (comparative keener or more keen, superlative keenest or most keen) verb to keen is to be enthusiastic about

1. 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 about computers.

   I’m keen on you. ― I like you.

   He is keen for help.

   She’s keen to learn another language.

   “Do you want to go on holiday with me?” / “Yes, I’m keen.”

   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, Act III, scene ii, page 268, column 2:

     Ophe[lia] You are keene my Lord, you are keene. / Ham[let] It would coſt you a groaning, to take off my edge.

   • 2000, Jane Green, Bookends, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN; republished as Bookends: A Novel, trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books, 2003, →ISBN, page 304:

     In fact, she doesn't mention the fact that I've obviously been avoiding her, just sounds genuinely thrilled to hear from me, and as soon as I mention getting together she suggests Monday, which is rather keen, even for Portia.

2. Fierce, intense, vehement.

   This boy has a keen appetite.

   • c. 1370–1390, William Langland, Piers Plowman; published as “Passus XVII”, in Walter W[illiam] Skeat, editor, The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman, together with the Vita de Dowel, Dobet, et Dobest, Secundum Wit et Resoun, by William Langland (about 1362–1393 A.D.): Edited from Numerous Manuscripts, with Prefaces, Notes, and a Glossary, [...] In Four Parts, part III (Langland’s Vision of Piers the Plowman, the Whitaker Text, or Text C; Richard the Bedeles; The Crowned King), London: Published for the Early English Text Society, by N[icholas] Trübner & Co., 57 & 59, Ludgate Hill, 1873, OCLC 270097042, page 285, lines 82–85:

     For men knoweþ þat couetise · is of ful kene wil, / And haþ hondes and armes · of a long lengthe, / And pourte is a pety þyng · apereþ nat to hus nauele; / A loueliche laik was hit neuere · by-twyne a long and a short.

     For men know well that Covetousness has a keen will / And a very long reach of hands and arms / And Poverty's just a tiny thing, doesn't even reach his navel, / And a good bout was never between tall and short.[1]

   • c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, Act III, scene ii, page 176, column 1:

     [N]euer did I know / A creature that did beare the ſhape of man / So keene and greedy to confound a man.

3. Having a fine edge or point; sharp.
   • c. 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Knightes Tale” from The Canterbury Tales; published in A Complete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain, volume I (Containing Chaucer, Surrey, Wyatt & Sackville), London: Printed for Iohn & Arthur Arch, 23, Gracechurch Street; Edinburgh: Bell & Bradfute & I. Mundell & Co., [1795], OCLC 490490936, page 17, column 2:

     Before hire [Venus] ſtood hire ſone Cupido, / Upon his ſhoulders winges he had two, / And blind he was, as is often ſene; / A bow he bare and arwes bright and kene.

   • c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, Act V, scene ii, page 139, column 1:

     The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen / As is the Razors edge, inuisible: […]

   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, Act I, scene v, page 134, column 2:

     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. Acute of mind, having or expressing mental acuteness; penetrating, sharp.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “A Louers Complaint”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. Neuer before Imprinted‎, London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, OCLC 216596634:

     For when we rage, aduiſe is often ſeene / By blunting vs to make our wits more keene.

   • 1781 January, William Cowper, “Table Talk”, in Poems, 4th edition, London: Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul's Church Yard, published 1782, OCLC 519413077, lines 492–495, page 11:

     So, when remote futurity is brought / Before the keen inquiry of her thought, / A terrible sagacity informs / The poet's heart; […]

5. Acrimonious, bitter, piercing.

   keen satire or sarcasm

   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, Act III, scene i, page 9, column 2:

     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.

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

   a keen wind

   the cold is very keen

   • 1764 December 19 (indicated as 1765), Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society. A Poem. Inscribed to the Rev. Henry Goldsmith, London: Printed for J[ohn] Newbery, OCLC 723180797; 3rd edition, London: Printed for J. Newbury,^{[sic, meaning Newbery]} in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1765, OCLC 680758043, page 10:

     Chearful at morn he wakes from ſhort repoſe, / Breaſts the keen air, and carolls as he goes; […]

7. (Britain) Extremely low as to be competitive.

   keen prices

8. (US, informal, dated) Marvelous.

   I just got this peachy keen new dress.

   • 1985, Douglas Adams, The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts, New York, N.Y.: Harmony Books, →ISBN, page 82:

     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.

9. (obsolete) Brave, courageous; audacious, bold.

Keen is often used to create compounds, the meaning of most of them being fairly obvious, for example, keen-edged, keen-eyed, keen-sighted, keen-witted, etc.

• (showing a quick and ardent responsiveness or willingness): ardent, eager, prompt
• (having a fine edge or point): sharp
• (acrimonious): biting, cutting, piercing
• (acute of mind): acute, penetrating, shrewd; see also Thesaurus:intelligent

keen (third-person singular simple present keens, present participle keening, simple past and past participle keened)

1. (transitive, rare) To make cold, to sharpen.
   • 1730, James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, A Hymn, A Poem to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and Britannia, a Poem, London, Printed for J. Millan, near Whitehall; and A[ndrew] Millar, in the Strand, OCLC 965786799; republished in The Works of James Thomson. With His Last Corrections and Improvements. In Four Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand, 1766, OCLC 639856222, page 93, lines 1256–1259:

     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.

From Irish caoin (“to cry, weep; to keen”).

keen (plural keens)

1. A prolonged wail for a deceased person.
   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/5/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, London: W[illiam] Collins Sons & Co., OCLC 23842407, OL 1519647W:

     [S]he went so swiftly that he could only follow her to the door. The large shape of the car swallowed her up; and the car twisted softly around the little drive and away to the London road. Minutes later he heard its Klaxon, just one sharp keen, like the harsh cry of a sea-bird.

keen (third-person singular simple present keens, present participle keening, simple past and past participle keened)

1. (intransitive) To utter a keen.
   • 20th century, Stuart Howard-Jones (1904–1974), “Hibernia”, in Kingsley Amis, comp., The New Oxford Book of English Light Verse, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1978, →ISBN, page 243:

     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.)

2. (transitive) To utter with a loud wailing voice or wordless cry.
   • 2000, Mercedes Lackey, Brightly Burning, New York, N.Y.: DAW Books, →ISBN:

     Satiran, lost in his own grief, shuddered once, then lifted his head to the sky and keened out his loss to the heavens.

3. (transitive) To mourn.
   • 1996, Virginia Warner Brodine, Seed of the Fire, New York, N.Y.: International Publishers, →ISBN, page 28:

     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.

• keener
• keeness (“woman who keens”)

• Enke, kene, knee, kène, neek

• IPA^(key): /kʰeːn/

keen

1. no, not any, not a

   Ich sin keen Becker.

   I am not a baker.

   Du host keen Grund fer sowas se denke.

   You have no reason to think so.

¹Form used when the plural of the noun is the same as the singular

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary

• IPA^(key): /keːn/
  • Rhymes: -eːn

keen m or n

1. no, not any, not a

keen

1. bring