keen
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /kiːn/
enpr: kēn
ipa: /kin/
rhymes: -iːn
homophone: Keane
homophone: Keene
Forms: form: keener
form: more keen
form: keenest
form: most keen
form: keene
form: kene
Etymology: 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”), Faroese kønur (“expert (in, on), experienced, skilful, able, capable”), Scots keen (“lively, brisk; avaricious”). Related to Old English cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”). More at cunning, can.
Senses: examples: text: I’m keen on computers.
text: I’m keen on you.
translation: I like you.
english: I like you.
text: She’s keen to learn another language.
text: “Do you want to go on holiday with me?” “Yes, I’m keen.”
text: Ophe[lia] You are keene my Lord, you are keene. / Ham[let] It would coſt you a groaning, to take off my edge.
ref: 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, act III, scene ii, page 268, column 2:
text: 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.
ref: 2000, Jane Green, Bookends, London: Penguin Books; republished as Bookends: A Novel, trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books, 2003, page 304
glosses: Often with a prepositional phrase, or with to and an infinitive: showing a quick and ardent responsiveness or willingness; eager, enthusiastic, interested.
examples: text: This boy has a keen appetite.
text: [N]euer did I know / A creature that did beare the ſhape of man / So keene and greedy to confound a man.
ref: 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, act III, scene ii, page 176, column 1:
text: 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 […]
ref: 1885, Helen Hunt Jackson, Zeph: A Posthumous Story:
glosses: Fierce, intense, vehement.
examples: text: The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen
 As is the Razors edge, inuisible: […]
ref: 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, act V, scene ii, page 139, column 1:
text: 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.
ref: 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, act I, scene v, page 134, column 2:
glosses: Having a fine edge or point; sharp.
examples: text: For when we rage, aduiſe is often ſeene
 By blunting vs to make our wits more keene.
ref: 1609, William Shakespeare, “A Louers Complaint”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
text: So, when remote futurity is brought / Before the keen inquiry of her thought, / A terrible sagacity informs / The poet's heart; […]
ref: 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, page 11, lines 492–495:
text: These books will fill, and well fill, certain stretches of life […] But in old or nervous or solemnest or dying hours, when one needs the impalpably soothing and vitalizing influences of abysmic Nature, or its affinities in literature or human society, and the soul resents the keenest mere intellection, they will not be sought for.
ref: 1892, Walt Whitman, “Notes Left Over: Emerson's Books”, in Complete Prose Works:
glosses: Acute of mind, having or expressing mental acuteness; penetrating, sharp.
examples: text: keen satire or sarcasm
text: 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.
ref: 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, act III, scene i, page 9, column 2:
glosses: Acrimonious, bitter, piercing.
examples: text: a keen wind
text: the cold is very keen
text: Chearful at morn he wakes from ſhort repoſe, / Breaſts the keen air, and carolls as he goes; […]
ref: 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; 3rd edition, London: Printed for J. Newbury, in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1765, →OCLC, page 10
glosses: Of cold, wind, etc.: cutting, penetrating, piercing, sharp.
glosses: Of prices, extremely low as to be competitive.
examples: text: I just got this peachy keen new dress.
text: 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
ref: 1974 February 4, “Bennie and the Jets”, in Elton John (lyrics), Bernie Taupin (music), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, performed by Elton John, Davey Johnstone, Dee Murray, Nigel Olsson, track 3:
text: 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.
ref: 1985, Douglas Adams, The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts, New York, N.Y.: Harmony Books, →ISBN, page 82:
glosses: Marvelous.
glosses: Brave, courageous; audacious, bold.
Synonyms: sense: showing a quick and ardent responsiveness or willingness
word: ardent
sense: showing a quick and ardent responsiveness or willingness
word: eager
sense: showing a quick and ardent responsiveness or willingness
word: prompt
sense: having a fine edge or point
word: sharp
sense: acrimonious
word: biting
sense: acrimonious
word: cutting
sense: acrimonious
word: piercing
sense: acute of mind
word: acute
word: penetrating
word: shrewd
word: intelligent
Derived terms: keen as a bean
keen as a Jew
keen as knives
keen as mustard
keenly
keenness
keeno
keen on
keen-witted
overkeen
peachy keen
peachy keen jelly bean
treat 'em mean to keep 'em keen
unkeen
young and keen