Word Meanings - SHARPEN - Book Publishers vocabulary database

To make sharp. Specifically: To give a keen edge or fine point to; to make sharper; as, to sharpen an ax, or the teeth of a saw. To render more quick or acute in perception; to make more ready or ingenious. The air . . . sharpened his visual ray

Additional info about word: SHARPEN

To make sharp. Specifically: To give a keen edge or fine point to; to make sharper; as, to sharpen an ax, or the teeth of a saw. To render more quick or acute in perception; to make more ready or ingenious. The air . . . sharpened his visual ray To objects distant far. Milton. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Burke. To make more eager; as, to sharpen men's desires. Epicurean cooks Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite. Shak. To make more pungent and intense; as, to sharpen a pain or disease. To make biting, sarcastic, or severe. "Sharpen each word." E. Smith. To render more shrill or piercing. Inclosures not only preserve sound, but increase and sharpen it. Bacon. To make more tart or acid; to make sour; as, the rays of the sun sharpen vinegar. To raise, as a sound, by means of a sharp; to apply a sharp to. (more info) Etym:

Related words: (words related to SHARPEN)

• INGENIOUSNESS
  The quality or state of being ingenious; ingenuity.
• SHARPLY
  In a sharp manner,; keenly; acutely. They are more sharply to be chastised and reformed than the rude Irish. Spenser. The soldiers were sharply assailed with wants. Hayward. You contract your eye when you would see sharply. Bacon.
• SHARPER
  A person who bargains closely, especially, one who cheats in bargains; a swinder; also, a cheating gamester. Sharpers, as pikes, prey upon their own kind. L'Estrange. Syn. -- Swindler; cheat; deceiver; trickster; rogue. See Swindler.
• SPECIFICALLY
  In a specific manner.
• POINT SWITCH
  A switch made up of a rail from each track, both rails being tapered far back and connected to throw alongside the through rail of either track.
• POINTLESSLY
  Without point.
• QUICKBEAM
  See TREE
• POINT-DEVICE; POINT-DEVISE
  Uncommonly nice and exact; precise; particular. You are rather point-devise in your accouterments. Shak. Thus he grew up, in logic point-devise, Perfect in grammar, and in rhetoric nice. Longfellow. (more info) + point point, condition + devis
• ACUTE-ANGLED
  Having acute angles; as, an acute-angled triangle, a triangle with every one of its angles less than a right angle.
• PERCEPTION
  The faculty of perceiving; the faculty, or peculiar part, of man's constitution by which he has knowledge through the medium or instrumentality of the bodily organs; the act of apperhending material objects or qualities through the senses;
• QUICKSTEP
  A lively, spirited march; also, a lively style of dancing.
• POINTAL
  The pistil of a plant. 2. A kind of pencil or style used with the tablets of the Middle Ages. "A pair of tablets . . . and a pointel." Chaucer.
• POINTED
  1. Sharp; having a sharp point; as, a pointed rock. 2. Characterized by sharpness, directness, or pithiness of expression; terse; epigrammatic; especially, directed to a particular person or thing. His moral pleases, not his pointed wit. Pope.
• SHARPIE
  A long, sharp, flat-bottomed boat, with one or two masts carrying a triangular sail. They are often called Fair Haven sharpies, after the place on the coast of Connecticut where they originated.
• ACUTE
  Attended with symptoms of some degree of severity, and coming speedily to a crisis; -- opposed to chronic; as, an acute disease. Acute angle , an angle less than a right angle. Syn. -- Subtile; ingenious; sharp; keen; penetrating; sagacious; sharp-
• READY-MADE
  Made already, or beforehand, in anticipation of need; not made to order; as, ready-made clothing; ready-made jokes.
• QUICKNESS
  1. The condition or quality of being quick or living; life. Touch it with thy celestial quickness. Herbert. 2. Activity; briskness; especially, rapidity of motion; speed; celerity; as, quickness of wit. This deed . . . must send thee hence With
• POINT ALPHABET
  An alphabet for the blind with a system of raised points corresponding to letters.
• POINTSMAN
  A man who has charge of railroad points or switches.
• SHARP-SET
  Eager in appetite or desire of gratification; affected by keen hunger; ravenous; as, an eagle or a lion sharp-set. The town is sharp-set on new plays. Pope.
• ENQUICKEN
  To quicken; to make alive. Dr. H. More.
• COVER-POINT
  The fielder in the games of cricket and lacrosse who supports "point."
• OVERREADY
  Too ready. -- O"ver*read"*i*ly, adv. -- O"ver*read"i*ness, n.
• TROIS POINT
  The third point from the outer edge on each player's home table.
• REAPPOINT
  To appoint again.
• STANDPOINT
  A fixed point or station; a basis or fundamental principle; a position from which objects or principles are viewed, and according to which they are compared and judged.
• INTERPOINT
  To point; to mark with stops or pauses; to punctuate. Her sighs should interpoint her words. Daniel.