--- a/lib/flaggie/action.py	
+++ a/lib/flaggie/action.py	
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ class Action(object):
 
 			# Check whether the argument looks like a pattern but denote that
 			# for keywords '**' and '*' have special meaning.
-			if (ns and 'kw' not in ns) or arg not in ('**', '*'):
+			if (ns and 'kw' not in ns) or arg not in ('**', '*', '~*'):
 				for schr in ('*', '?', '['):
 					if schr in arg:
 						if not ns:
--- a/lib/flaggie/cache.py	
+++ a/lib/flaggie/cache.py	
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ class Caches(object):
 				kws = set()
 				for r in self.dbapi.porttrees:
 					kws.update(grabfile(os.path.join(r, 'profiles', 'arch.list')))
-				kws.update(['~%s' % x for x in kws], ('*', '**'))
+				kws.update(['~%s' % x for x in kws], ('*', '**', '~*'))
 
 				# and the ** special keyword
 				self.cache[None] = frozenset(kws)
--- a/lib/flaggie/cleanup.py	
+++ a/lib/flaggie/cleanup.py	
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ class DropUnmatchedFlags(BaseCleanupAction):
 				if dbcache[pe.package]:
 					flags = cache[pe.package]
 					for flag in set([x.name for x in pe]):
-						if k == 'kw' and flag == '**':
+						if k == 'kw' and (flag == '**' or flag == '*' or flag == '~*'):
 							pass
 						elif flag not in flags:
 							del pe[flag]