[a. Ir. caoine (kī·nə), f. caoinim (OIr. cáinim, cóinim) I weep, wail, lament; cf. KEEN v.2] An Irish funeral song accompanied with wailing in lamentation for the dead.
1830. Crofton Croker, in Fraser’s Mag., I. 191. The following Keens … I have translated from the Irish.
1841. S. C. Hall, Ireland, I. 226. The keener having finished a stanza of the keen, sets up the wail.
1895. Q. Rev., Oct., 319. His mother was famed far and near for her skill in giving the keen.
