keening

From keen +‎ -ing, from Irish caoin.

keening (not comparable)

1. Sharp, shrill, especially of a sound.

   The keening sound of a dentist's drill sets my teeth on edge.

   • 2025 July 22, Kory Grow, “Ozzy Osbourne obituary: The Godfather of Heavy Metal who changed the world”, in Rolling Stone‎^[1]:

     As Black Sabbath’s doomsayer-in-chief, Osbourne could summon a true sense of terror in his keening cries in a way that heightened the band’s muscular dirges.

keening (countable and uncountable, plural keenings)

1. Intense mournful wailing after a death, often at a funeral or wake.
   • 1988, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions, Faber & Faber Limited (2021), page 85:

     Keening. I remember keening that seemed to go on all through the night: shrill, sharp, shiny, needles of sound piercing cleanly and deeply to let the anguish in, not out.

2. (by extension) An unpleasant wailing sound.

keening

1. present participle and gerund of keen

• kneeing