keener

He was an adorable boy, his expression keener and more changeable than that of the changeling.

This Scepter'd Isle Lackey, Mercedes 2004

It would be difficult to explain what the change was, but it forcibly struck Alain: the air was more dignified, the expression keener; there was a look of conscious power and command about the man even at that distance; the intense, concentrated intelligence of his eye, his firm lip, his marked features, his projecting, massive brow, would have impressed a very ordinary observer.

The Parisians — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

It would be difficult to explain what the change was, but it forcibly struck Alain: the air was more dignified, the expression keener; there was a look of conscious power and command about the man even at that distance; the intense, concentrated intelligence of his eye, his firm lip, his marked features, his projecting, massive brow, would have impressed a very ordinary observer.

The Parisians — Volume 01 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

The more absolutely he fails, the higher, it is probable, he will reckon his own merits; and the keener will be the sense of injury in that he whose work is of so high a nature cannot get bread, while they whose tasks are mean are lapped in luxury.

An Autobiography 2004

The hotter the opposition the keener will be the support.

The Way We Live Now 2004

The closer the connection has been, the keener is the loss.

Friendship Hugh Black

Months passed; Nancy was tormented by a desire for expression keener than ever and the sense that until she had some knowledge of actual life she would write nothing that was vital, nothing that was true.

DEVELOPMENT A NOVEL BY W. BRYHER WITH A PREFACE BY AMY LOWELL 1920

In fact, the more plentiful and cheap is capital, the keener will be the demand for the labour of the workers.

International Finance Hartley Withers 1908

The more his work was praised, the more his friends talked of honors and planned his future, the keener was his suffering, and most of all there was the shadow that had come between him and his father, breaking the old comradeship, and causing them to shun each other; though the father never knew why.

The Shepherd of the Hills Harold Bell Wright 1908

The more pains he takes with these processes, naturally the keener will be his enjoyment of them.

Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) 1906

Several entries that made the final cut involved words used in most of Canada — like “eavestrough,” for rain gutter, and “keener,” “a person, esp. a student, who is extremely eager, zealous or enthusiastic.”

Katherine Barber, Who Defined Canadian English, Is Dead at 61 By 2021