keen

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His face was the face one feels he has a right to expect of a newspaper man--keen, alert, humorous; on the look-out for opportunities.

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Definitions (36)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (11)

  1. adjective Having a fine, sharp cutting edge or point.
  2. adjective Having or marked by intellectual quickness and acuity. See Synonyms at sharp.
  3. adjective Acutely sensitive: a keen ear.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (14)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (7)

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Examples (50)

  • "All these men, who flew to do my bidding when my eye was clear and my sword keen, are beginning to make plans for their own advantage, thinking that I cannot detect their guile. —  The Path to Honour
  • His face was the face one feels he has a right to expect of a newspaper man--keen, alert, humorous; on the look-out for opportunities. —  The Four Pools Mystery
  • They were as well equipped with axes--keen, heavy weapons--as they were with rifles and ammunition, and these were as necessary. —  The Young Trailers A Story of Early Kentucky
  • But between his fiery poll and his plebeian and upturned nose flashed a pair of eyes--keen, piercing, and steady--worthy of Caesar or of Napoleon. —  Deeds that Won the Empire Historic Battle Scenes
  • His unaffected countenance seemed to say: "I wear it because it is useless to put off what no one else will wear, when presently I shall need nothing but a shroud Judge Custis looked at the meek old gentleman closely, sitting at his plate like a lay brother in some monastery or infirmary, indifferent to talk or news or affairs; and the remembrance of what he had been--keen, accumulative, with youthful passions long retained, and the man buoyant under the judge's guard--impressed the Virginian to say to himself What, then, is man! —  The Entailed Hat Or, Patty Cannon's Times
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

sharp ·  eager ·  shrewd ·  sympathetic ·  acute

Used in the same contextWord Family

keen:   keener ·  keenest ·  keening ·  Keen
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English kene, from Old English cēne, brave.
  2. From Irish Gaelic caoineadh, from caoninim, I lament, from Old Irish caínim, coínim, perhaps of Brittonic origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle English kene, bold, bitter, sharp, from Anglo-Saxon cēne, rarely cy¯ne, bold (used in this sense only) (= Dutch koen = Old High German kuoni, kuani, chuoni, chuone, Middle High German küene, German kühn, bold, daring, = Icelandic kœnn (for *kœnn), wise, clever, able): literally ‘able,’ with orig. suffix -ya, from cann, infinitive cunnan, be able, can: see can. The physical sense ‘sharp’ has been developed from that of ‘bold, eager.’
  2. from keen, a.
  3. from Irish caoine, a cry of lamentation for the dead.
  4. from keen, n.
 

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/kin/
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