Definition of "high-keyed" [high-keyed]

• High-strung; intent; eager.
• In music, at a high pitch.

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "Condo is an enthusiastic confident drawer who paints in high-keyed funky color with flourish."
• ""You be off, I say," she rasped in her high-keyed voice, "or I'll put the constable after you.""
• "Far from overpowering the beholder by the juxtaposition of high-keyed complementaries -one of the stock devices of what has come to be called "op art"- Hover tends to appear dark, subdued and perhaps uninteresting at first glance."