high-keyed
Americanadjective
adjective
-
having a high pitch; shrill
-
highly strung
-
bright in colour
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He had, by then, traded in rough-and-ready brushwork and modulated colors for graphic crispness and a high-keyed palette.
From New York Times ● Feb. 13, 2020
The large sculptures depart from Carter’s prior work by draining rainbow color, usually high-keyed, from the mix.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2018
This aligns it with the 1960s California trend in painting and sculpture known as finish fetish, which found inspiration in the high-keyed colors and shiny surfaces of hot rods and surfboards.
From New York Times ● Dec. 30, 2011
Inspired in part by the way rippling water scattered colored light, such Impressionist painters as Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir had broken images into visibly discrete brushstrokes of high-keyed color.
From Washington Post
Aibileen shakes her head, breathes out a high-keyed “Huhhhhm,” takes a sip of her coffee.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
