/ʃɑːp/, /ʃɑɹp/
OriginFrom Middle English scharp, from Old English sċearp, from Proto-West Germanic *skarp, from Proto-Germanic *skarpaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerb-, from *(s)ker- (“to cut”).
Cognate with West Frisian skerp, Low German scherp, scharp, schaarp, Dutch scherp, German scharf, Danish skarp. Compare Irish cearb (“keen; cutting”), Latin acerbus (“tart, bitter”), Tocharian B kärpye (“rough”), Latvian skârbs (“sharp, rough”), Russian щерба (ščerba, “notch”), Polish szczerba (“gap, dent, jag, chip, nick, notch”), Albanian harb (“rudeness”). More at shear.
- Terminating in a point or edge, especially one that can cut or pierce easily; not dull, obtuse, or rounded.
“I keep my knives sharp so that they don't slip unexpectedly while carving.”
“Ernest made the pencil too sharp and accidentally stabbed himself with it.”
“A face with sharp features”
- colloquialIntelligent.
“My nephew is a sharp lad; he can count to 100 in six languages, and he's only five years old.”
“At school, despite his sharp mind, Malcolm was laughed at by teachers when he said he wanted to be a lawyer.”
- Raised by one semitone (denoted by the symbol ♯ after the name of the note).
- Higher in pitch than required.
“The orchestra's third violin several times was sharp about an eighth of a tone.”
- Having a strong acrid or acidic taste.
“Milly couldn't stand sharp cheeses when she was pregnant, because they made her nauseated.”
“This grapefruit is especially sharp.”
- Sudden, abrupt, intense, rapid.
“A pregnant woman during labor normally experiences a number of sharp contractions.”
“The man turned and made a sharp movement towards the door.”
“She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, […]”
- colloquialIllegal or dishonest.
“Michael had a number of sharp ventures that he kept off the books.”
- colloquialKeenly or unduly attentive to one's own interests; shrewd, verging on dishonest.
“a sharp dealer, a sharp customer, sharp practice”
“But, as they have hitherto stood, a clergyman established in a competent living is not under the necessity of being so sharp, vigilant, and exacting.”
- Exact, precise, accurate; keen.
“You'll need sharp aim to make that shot.”
“Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.[…]A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electron”
- Offensive, critical, or acrimonious; stern or harsh.
“sharp criticism”
“When the two rivals met, first there were sharp words, and then a fight broke out.”
“The reviews have ranged from excellent (In Touch, Jan 76, and Gay Literature, Winter 76) to qualified praise (GCN, 6 Mar 76) to sharp attack (Allen Young in the current Gay Liberator; Allen calls it t”
- colloquialStylish, smart or attractive.
“You look so sharp in that tuxedo!”
“A sharp dresser partial to snakeskin shoes whose miniature Australian shepherd dog Saatchi is a constant fixture on family outings, [Donald] Tang's next move was to reinvent himself as a dealmaker con”
- Observant; alert; acute.
“Keep a sharp watch on the prisoners. I don't want them to escape!”
- Quick and alert.
“Jones, the centre forward, made a sharp start to the game.”
- Strongly distinguishing or differentiating; acute.
“a sharp contrast, a sharp distinction”
- Forming a small or tight angle; especially, forming an angle of less than ninety degrees.
“Drive down Main for three quarters of a mile, then make a sharp right turn onto Pine.”
“a sharp turn or curve”
“The street down which Warwick had come intersected Front Street at a sharp angle in front of the old hotel, forming a sort of flatiron block at the junction, known as Liberty Point”
- Steep; precipitous; abrupt.
“a sharp ascent or descent”
- Said of as extreme a value as possible.
“Sure, any planar graph can be five-colored. But that result is not sharp: in fact, any planar graph can be four-colored. That is sharp: the same can't be said for any lower number.”
- Tactical; risky.
“Time and time again, the amateur player has lost the opportunity to make the really best move because he felt bound to follow some chess "rule" he had learned, rather than to make the sharp move which”
“In such situations most chess players choose the obvious and logical way: they go in for sharp play. However, not everyone is a natural attacking player[…]”
- Piercing; keen; severe; painful.
“a sharp pain; the sharp and frosty winter air”
“Sharp misery had worn him to the bones.”
“The night was Winter in his roughest mood; the morning sharp and clear.”
- Eager or keen in pursuit; impatient for gratification.
- obsoleteFierce; ardent; fiery; violent; impetuous.
“And fear of God, from whom their piety feign'd In sharp contest of battle found no aid Against invaders”
“A sharp assault already is begun;”
- Composed of hard, angular grains; gritty.
“Well-burnt good lime and sharp sand, if very sharp, a load of sand (about 36 bushels) to a hundred of lime (being 25 bushels, or a hundred pecks[…]”
- datedUttered in a whisper, or with the breath alone; aspirated; unvoiced.
- obsoleteHungry.
““[W]hy this last week we ha'n't had nothing at all but some dry musty red herrings; so you may think, Miss, we're kept pretty sharp!””
““[…] It’s child’s play to find the stuff now. I’ve half a mind to dine first.”
“I don’t feel sharp,” growled Morgan.”
- To a point or edge.
- Piercingly.
“The iron plates rang sharp, but turn'd the spear”
- Eagerly.
“You bite so sharp at reasons.”
- So as to make a sharp, or tight, angle.
“South of the city the river turns sharp to the east.”
“sharp left, sharp right”
- not-comparableExactly.
“I'll see you at twelve o'clock sharp.”
- In a higher pitch than is correct or desirable.
“I didn't enjoy the concert much because the soprano sang sharp on all the high notes.”
“1867, Dutton Cook, Hobson's Choice, Chapter 8, “Music Hath Charms”, p. 72 https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Hobson_s_Choice/hwhhEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Matilda+Milner+frequently+sang+sharp%22”
- The symbol ♯, placed after the name of a note in the key signature or before a note on the staff to indicate that the note is to be played one chromatic semitone higher.
“The pitch pipe sounded out a perfect F♯ (F sharp).”
“Transposition frequently is harder to read because of all the sharps and flats on the staff.”
- A note that is played one chromatic semitone higher than usual; denoted by the name of the note that is followed by the symbol ♯.
- A note that is sharp in a particular key.
“The piece was difficult to read after it had been transposed, since in the new key many notes were sharps.”
- The scale having a particular sharp note as its tonic.
“Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" is written in C♯ minor (C sharp minor.)”
- plural-normallySomething that is sharp.
“Place sharps in the specially marked red container for safe disposal.”
“If butchers had but the manners to go to sharps, gentlemen would be contented with a rubber at cuffs.”
- plural-normallyA hypodermic syringe.
- dated, plural-normallyA scalpel or other edged instrument used in surgery.
- plural-normallyA sharp object; any item pointed enough to injure human skin.
- A dishonest person; a cheater.
“The billiard sharp whom anyone catches / His doom's extremely hard— [...]”
“The casino kept in the break room a set of pictures of known sharps for the bouncers to see.”
“This usage is often classified as variant spelling of shark, and unrelated to the 'pointed' or 'cutting' meanings of sharp.”
- Part of a stream where the water runs very rapidly.
“here are good fish to be picked out of sharps and stop-holes into the water-tables”
- A sewing needle with a very slender point, more pointed than a blunt or a between.
- in-pluralFine particles of husk mixed with coarse particle of flour of cereals; middlings.
“While he worked he talked to his ducks, who were waddling about hopefully, as it was almost time for the red bucket to be filled with sharps and potato-peelings.”
- dated, slangAn expert.
- A sharpie (member of Australian gangs of the 1960s and 1970s).
“The Circle was one of the few dances the older sharps frequented; mostly they were to be found in pubs, pool-halls or at the track.”
- abbreviation, acronym, alt-ofAcronym of skinhead against racial prejudice.
- To raise the pitch of a note half a step making a natural note a sharp.
“That new musician must be tone deaf: he sharped half the notes of the song!”
- To play tricks in bargaining; to act the sharper.
“he made a shift yet to pick up a Sorry Living upon the Rook ; and not by Sharping alone , but now and then by downright Stealing”
- obsolete, transitiveTo sharpen.
- A surname.
- An unincorporated community in Ozark County, Missouri, United States.
Formssharper(comparative) · sharpest(superlative) · sharps(plural) · sharps(present, singular, third-person) · sharping(participle, present) · sharped(participle, past) · sharped(past) · Sharps(plural) · Sharpe(alternative) · SHARPs(plural)
Source: Wiktionary