keened
- 1Simple past and past participle of keen.
The mourners keened over the coffin until dawn broke across the hills.
By the time the priest arrived, the family had keened themselves hoarse.
Note
The mourning verb is the one behind this form, since the adjective meaning eager has no past tense. One spelling serves both jobs: they keened all night; they had keened for hours. The verb also works both ways. It can stand alone (keened over the grave) or take an object, which may be the cry itself (keened a lament) or the person mourned (keened their dead). A rare transitive use means to sharpen or make cold.
The old women keened a lament that carried down the valley.
The village keened its drowned fishermen for three days.
keened is a form of keen
keen, verb: To wail loudly and at length in grief for a dead person, or to utter such a wailing cry. Full entry
- Spelling
- keen → keened: add -ed
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /d/.
Use it in a sentence
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