keen

When you've been trying to remember something and you suddenly remember it, the mental pleasure is keen. —Ian Frazier, Atlantic, October 2004

Indeed, tobacco processors were keen to promote variety even further by saturating and mixing the cut and spun leaf with a miscellany of spices … —Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches, 1988

But Mary wasn't keen on braving the Athens streets alone so Magnus went instead; Mary would do a museum in the morning. —John le Carré, A Perfect Spy, 1986

That he took a keen interest in scientific navigation is indicated by his keeping a daybook or journal (which has not survived), and by making an honest effort to determine longitude. —Samuel Eliot Morison, The European Discovery of America, 1971

The keen clear wind swept in on his left cheek, and as he bore on the helm so the Sophie answered, quicker and more nervous than he had expected. —Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander, 1970

Planting himself squarely before the two tall cowboys who were standing, he looked straight into their lean, bronzed faces. He spared a full moment for that keen cool gaze before he spoke. —Zane Grey, Desert Gold, 1913

She's a very keen observer of the political world.

pilots with especially keen eyesight

the loud keens of the widows were heard throughout the war-ravaged city

mourners keening at a funeral

victims of the disaster have been keening for weeks about the slowness of governmental aid