Keen vs Love - What's the difference?
keen | love |
showing a quick and ardent willingness or responsiveness, enthusiastic, eager; interested, intense.
vehement; fierce; as, a keen appetite.
* (rfdate),
* (rfdate), Shakespeare
sharp; having a fine edge or point.
* (rfdate) :
acute of mind; sharp; penetrating; having or expressing mental acuteness.
* (rfdate),
* (rfdate),
bitter; piercing; acrimonious; cutting; stinging; severe; as, keen satire or sarcasm.
* (rfdate)
piercing; penetrating; cutting; sharp; -- applied to cold, wind, etc,; as, a keen wind; the cold is very keen.
* (rfdate),
Enthusiastic
(US, informal, dated) Marvelous.
(UK) extremely low as to be competitive.
(obsolete) brave, courageous; bold, audacious.
(rare) To sharpen; to make cold.
* (rfdate), Thomson.
To utter a keen.
* (rfdate) Stuart Howard-Jones (1904-1974), Hibernia.'' Collected in ''The New Oxford Book of English Light Verse, 1978.
To utter with a loud wailing voice or wordless cry.
*
To mourn.
*
(label) Strong affection.
# An intense feeling of affection and care towards another person.
#*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8
, passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.}}
# A deep or abiding liking for something.
# A profound and caring attraction towards someone.
#* (John Milton) (1608-1674)
(countable) The object of one’s romantic feelings; a darling or sweetheart.
* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
(colloquial)
(euphemistic) A sexual desire; sexual activity.
*1986, Ben Elton & al., ":
*:—What think you, my lord, of... love ?
*:—You mean ‘rumpy-pumpy’.
(obsolete) A thin silk material.
* 1664 , (Robert Boyle), Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours,
A climbing plant, Clematis vitalba .
To have a strong affection for (someone or something).
* 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter VI
* 2013 February 26, and (Nate Ruess), (Just Give Me a Reason) :
To need, thrive on.
(colloquial) To be strongly inclined towards something; an emphatic form of like .
To care deeply about, to be dedicated to (someone or something).
* John 3:16
* Matthew: 37-38
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
, volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= To derive delight from a fact or situation.
To lust for.
(euphemistic) To have sex with, (perhaps from make love.)
To praise; commend.
To praise as of value; prize; set a price on.
(racquet sports) Zero, no score.
* The Field
* John Betjeman, A Subaltern's Love Song
In obsolete terms the difference between keen and love
is that keen is brave, courageous; bold, audacious while love is a thin silk material.In transitive terms the difference between keen and love
is that keen is to mourn while love is to lust for.As verbs the difference between keen and love
is that keen is to sharpen; to make cold while love is to have a strong affection for (someone or something).As nouns the difference between keen and love
is that keen is a prolonged wail for a deceased person while love is strong affection.As an adjective keen
is showing a quick and ardent willingness or responsiveness, enthusiastic, eager; interested, intense.As a proper noun Love is
{{surname|lang=en}.keen
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . More at (l), (l).Alternative forms
* keene, kene (archaic)Adjective
(er)- Of full keen will.
- So keen and greedy to confound a man.
- That my keen knife see not the wound it makes.
- To make our wits more keen .
- Before the keen inquiry of her thought.
- Good father cardinal, cry thou amen to my keen curses.
- Breasts the keen air, and carols as he goes.
- I'm keen to learn another language.
- I'm keen on learning another language.
- I'm keen on languages.
- I'm keen about learning languages.
- I'm keen for help.
- ''"Do you want to learn another language?" / "I'm keen ."
- I just got this peachy keen new dress.
- keen prices
Usage notes
* Keen is often used in the composition of words, most of which are of obvious signification; as, keen-edged, keen-eyed, keen-sighted, keen-witted, etc.Synonyms
* prompt; eager; ardent; sharp; acute; cutting; penetrating; biting; severe; sarcastic; satirical; piercing; shrewd. * See alsoDerived terms
* keen-witted * keen as mustard * keen on * keenly * keennessVerb
(en verb)- Cold winter keens the brightening flood.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- Keen —meaning 'brisk'? Nay, here the Language warps:
'Tis singing bawdy Ballads to a Corpse.
Anagrams
* ----love
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) . The closing-of-a-letter sense is presumably a truncation of With love or the like. The verb is from (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) .Noun
- He on his side / Leaning half-raised, with looks of cordial love / Hung over her enamoured.
- Open the temple gates unto my love .
- Such a kind of transparency, as that of a Sive, a piece of Cyprus, or a Love -Hood.
Synonyms
* (sense) baby, darling, lover, pet, sweetheart, honey, love bird * (term of address) mate, lover. darling, sweetyAntonyms
* (strong affection) hate, hatred, angst; malice, spite * (absence of love) indifferenceVerb
(lov)- I wanted to take her in my arms and tell her how I loved her, and had taken her hand from the rail and started to draw her toward me when Olson came blundering up on deck with his bedding.
- Just give me a reason, / just a little bit's enough, / just a second we're not broken, just bent / and we can learn to love again.
- For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
- You shall love' the Lord your God with your whole heart, and your whole mind, and your whole soul; you shall ' love your neighbor as yourself.
The tao of tech, passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you
Antonyms
* hate, despiseDerived terms
* all's fair in love and war * cupboard love * in love * I love you * fall in love * first love * lady love * love affair * love at first sight * love bird/lovebird * love bite/lovebite * love bomb * love bug * lovebunny * love child * loved-up * love egg * love feast * love game * love grass * love handle * love-hate * love-in * love-in-a-mist * love is blind * love life * lovely * love-making * love match * love nest * love potion * lover * love rat * lovertine * love seat * loveship * love-shyness * lovesick * love song * lovestone * love story * love tap * love toy * love triangle * lovey-dovey * loving kindness * loyal love * make love * unrequited love * no love lost * puppy love * tough love * true love * unconditional loveSee also
* charityEtymology 2
From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) . See also (l).Verb
(lov)Etymology 3
From the phrase Neither for love nor for money , meaning "nothing". The previously held belief that it originated from the (etyl) term , due to its shape, is no longer widely accepted.Noun
(-)- So that’s fifteen-love to Kournikova.
- He won the match by three sets to love .
- Love -thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy, / The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy, / With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won, / I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn.