[f. Ir. caoin- (kīn), stem of caoin-im I wail: see KEEN sb.]
1. intr. To utter the keen, or Irish lamentation for the dead; to wail or lament bitterly.
1811. [implied in KEENER].
1845. Mrs. S. C. Hall, Whiteboy, vi. 55. The men … in general suffer the women to ‘keen’ as long as they please.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, xlii. (1890), 518. Peace, peace, Banshee—‘keening’ at every window!
1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, xvii. (1866), 165. It is the wild Irish women keening over their dead.
2. trans. To bewail with Irish wailing.
1830. Crofton Croker, in Fraser’s Mag., I. 200. Suppose that I am dead, and you were sent for to keen me … No one would keen you as I would.
3. To utter in a shrill wailing tone.
1893. W. R. Le Fanu, 70 Yrs. Irish Life, 278. The wild, wailing Irish cry, ‘keened’ by many women.
1897. Cornh. Mag., March, 339. His witch-like voice keened out, ‘Good God!’ [etc.].
Hence Keening vbl. sb.
1876. Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, 248. When the body was laid down … the keening was suspended.
1892. Stevenson, Across the Plains, 264. The high voice of keening … strikes in the face of sorrow like a buffet.
