- present participle of keen.
Etymology
Origin of keening
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.
Gilgamesh’s lament is not the stylized keening of epic tradition—not Achilles’ highfalutin howls after Hector strikes down Patroclus—but something rawer, humbler, more recognizably human.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
As such, there's little to compare with the straightforward joy of Watermelon Sugar, or the keening desire of As It Was - but Styles isn't stupid enough to alienate his fanbase entirely.
From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2026
Shift to Sport mode and the engine will hold at a high, keening rpm, trying to charge the battery faster than the driver can drain it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2025
After a few moments of keening in the dark, Howze reaches his denouement in song: “I’m trying to be,” he sings.
From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2024
She put her palms over her mouth as if that was all that would hold back the horrible, groaning, moaning, keening sound flooding out of her.
From "A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness
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.
