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Home  »  A Dictionary of Similes  »  Keen

Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.

Keen

Wit as keen as archer’s dart.
—Alvey A. Adee

Keen as a bride.
—Anonymous

Keen as the sight of an eagle.
—Anonymous

Keen as the sun.
—Anonymous

Keen, like the horn of the cuspèd moon.
—Arabian Nights

As keen for profit as a Polish Jew.
—Honoré de Balzac

Keen as the torture of impending bankruptcy.
—Honoré de Balzac

As keen as a miser after his pay.
—Jules Q. de Beaurepaire

Keen as Jove’s lightning wing’d athwart the sky.
—William Broome

As keen as anguish.
—James Cawthorn

Keen as a poniard-thrust.
—Eliza Cook

Keen as arrows.
—Gustave Flaubert

Keen as a razor.
—John Gay

Keen as a hawk.
—Thomas Hood

Keen as a sword.
—Rudyard Kipling

Keen like a spear.
—Sidney Lanier

Keen as a wolf.
—James Montgomery

Keen of glance as a falcon.
—Ouida

Keen as steel.
—Ouida

Keen as a blinded man …
Smells in the dark the cold odour of the earth.
—Stephen Phillips

Keen as undrawn sword.
—Frank Richardson

Keen as razor’s edge.
—William Shakespeare

Keen as the engine
Which tortures and which kills.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley

Keen as a sword’s edge.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as burns the passion of the rose.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as death to smite.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as flame.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as hate.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as iron in the flesh.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as lightning’s life.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Eyes as keen as pain.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as sleep and strife.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as the fire’s own fang.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as the heart of Mars.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as hunger.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as the heart’s desire.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as the manslayer’s knife.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as the sea’s thrill towards a kindling star.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Keen as desertion.
—Sir Henry Taylor

Keen as a sabre from its sheath.
—John Greenleaf Whittier

Keen and eager as a fine-nosed hound.
—William Wordsworth

His face was keen as is the wind
That cuts along the hawthorn fence.
—William Wordsworth