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1. Having a strong or impatient wish to do something
   - eager
    
2. Having or showing great excitement and interest
   - enthusiastic
    
3. Having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions
   - acute, discriminating, incisive, knifelike, penetrating, penetrative, piercing, sharp
    
4. Intense or sharp
   "suffered keen pain";
   - exquisite
    
5. Excellent
   "he did a keen job";
   - bang-up [N. Amer, informal], bully [informal], corking [Brit, informal], cracking [Brit, informal], dandy, great, groovy [informal], neat, nifty [informal], not bad [informal], peachy, slap-up [informal], swell [informal], smashing [Brit, informal], old, not half bad [informal], grouse [Austral, NZ, informal], ripper [Austral, informal], lovely
    
6. Painful as if caused by a sharp instrument
   "keen winds";
   - cutting, knifelike, piercing, stabbing, lancinate, lancinating
    
7. Having a sharp cutting edge or point
   "a keen blade"

1. A funeral lament sung with loud wailing

1. Express grief verbally
   "we keened the death of the child";
   - lament

Derived forms: keening, keens, keenest, keened, keener

See also: anxious, ardent, avid, crazy, dotty [informal], dying, evangelical, evangelistic, gaga [informal], glowing, good, gung ho, hot [informal], impatient, intense, overeager, overenthusiastic, passionate, perceptive, raring, sharp, spirited, warm, wild, zealous

Type of: coronach, dirge, express emotion, express feelings, lament, requiem, threnode, threnody

Encyclopedia: Keen, Michael