Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Sharp ,shrill , especially of a sound. - noun Intense mournful
wailing after a death, often at afuneral orwake - noun by extension An
unpleasant sound. - verb Present participle of
keen .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The keening was a physical thing, a blast as the curtain rose quickly and there they were.
February 1964 2009
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Their keening was a terrible din, like the wailing of alleycats-alleycats that were as large as lions.
Moonheart De Lint, Charles, 1951- 1990
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My voice was much, much higher and kind of keening, scary quality, which was ...
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My voice was much, much higher and kind of keening, scary quality, which was ...
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I remember it was the first time I'd ever heard real "keening" (the falsetto, high pitched wail sometimes used to describe the mythical sound of Irish banshees on the prowl).
Edward J. Murray: Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the "Real" Black Church in America 2008
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I've always considered myself as good at wailing -- "keening," we call it in Ireland.
Bono On Bono Assayas, Michka 2005
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Oddly, the stairs seemed to vibrate beneath their feet with a kind of keening, a doleful wail coming from deep under the temple.
Song of Time McLaren, Teri 1996
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Oddly, the stairs seemed to vibrate beneath their feet with a kind of keening, a doleful wail coming from deep under the temple.
Song of Time McLaren, Teri 1996
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BANSHEE (Irish _bean sidhe_; Gaelic _ban sith_, "woman of the fairies"), a supernatural being in Irish and general Celtic folklore, whose mournful screaming, or "keening," at night is held to foretell the death of some member of the household visited.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon" Various
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She is opening her letters and "keening" softly as she rocks in her chair.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, August 4th, 1920 Various
bilby commented on the word keening
"NORA (In a whisper to Cathleen.): She's quiet now and easy; but the day Michael was drowned you could hear her crying out from this to the spring well. It's fonder she was of Michael, and would any one have thought that?
CATHLEEN (Slowly and clearly.): An old woman will be soon tired with anything she will do, and isn't it nine days herself is after crying and keening, and making great sorrow in the house?"
- J. M. Synge, 'Riders to the Sea'.
December 13, 2008