1. Having a strong or impatient wish to do something
   "She was keen to start the new project";
   - eager
    
2. Having or showing great excitement and interest
   "The keen students eagerly participated in the discussion";
   - enthusiastic
    
3. Having a sharp cutting edge or point
   "a keen blade"
    
4. Intense or sharp
   "suffered keen pain";
   - exquisite
    
5. Having or showing quick and precise discernment or understanding; mentally perceptive and astute
   "Her keen analysis revealed subtle patterns in the data";
   - acute, discriminating, incisive, knifelike, penetrating, penetrative, piercing, sharp
    
6. Excellent
   "he did a keen job";
   - bang-up [N. Amer, informal], bully [informal], corking [Brit, informal], cracking [Brit, informal], dandy [informal], 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
    
7. Painful as if caused by a sharp instrument
   "keen winds";
   - cutting, knifelike, piercing, stabbing, lancinate, lancinating

1. A funeral lament sung with loud wailing
   "The mourners' keen could be heard throughout the village"

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

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

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

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

Encyclopedia: Keen, Michael