King James Bible Dictionary

SH'ARP, adjective

1. Having a very thin edge or a fine point; keen; acute; not blunt. Thus we may say, a sharp knife, or a sharp needle. A sharp edge easily severs a substance; a sharp point is easily made to penetrate, it.

2. Terminating in a point or edge; not obtuse; as, a hills terminates in a sharp peak, or a sharp ridge.

3. Forming an acute or too small angle at the ridge; as a sharp roof.

4. Acute of mind; quick to discern or distinguish; penetrating; ready at invention; witty; ingenious.

Nothing makes men sharper than want. Addison.

Many other things belong to the material world, wherein the sharpest philosophers have not yet obtained clear ideas. Watts.

5. Being of quick or nice perception; applied to the senses or organs of perception; as a sharp eye; sharp sight.

6. Affecting the organs of taste like fine points; piercing; penetrating; shrill; as sharp vinegar; sharp tasted citrons.

7. Affecting the organs of hearing like sharp points; poercing; penetrating; shrill; as a sharp sound or voice; a sharp not or tone; opposed to a flat note or sound.

8. Severe; harsh; biting; sarcastic; as sharp words; sharp rebuke.

-Be thy words severe,

Sharp as he merits; but the sword forbear. Dryden.

9. Severely rigid; quick or severe in punishing; cruel.

To that place the sharp Athenian law

Cannot pursue us. Shak.

10. Eager for food; keen; as a sharp appetite.

11. Eager in pursuit; deen in quest,

My faulchion now is sharp and passing empty. Shak.

12. Fierce; ardent; fiery; violent; as a sharp contest.

A sharp assault already is begun. Dryden.

13. Keen; severe; pungent; as sharp pain.

14. Very painful or distressing; as sharp tribulation; a sharp fit of the gout.

15. Very attentive or vigilant.

Sharp at her utmost ken she cast her eyes. Dryden.

16. Making nice calculations of profit; or close and exact in making bargains or demanding dues.

17. Biting; pinching; piercing; as sharp air; sharp wind or weather.

18. Subtil; nice; witty; acute; used of things; as a sharp discourse.

19. Among workmen, hard; as sharp sand.

20. Emanciated; lean; thin; as a sharp visage.

To brace sharp, in seamanship, to turn the yards to the most oblique position possible, that the ship may lay well up to the wind.

SH'ARP, noun

1. In music, an acute sound.

2. A note artificially raised a semitone; or,

3. The character which directs the note to be thus elevated; opposed to a flat, which depresses a note a semitone.

4. A pointed weapon. [Not in use.]

SH'ARP, verb transitive

1. To make keen or acute.

2. To render quick.

3. To mark with a sharp in musical composition; or to raise a not a semitone.

SH'ARP, verb intransitive To play tricks in bargaining; to act the sharper.

SH'ARP-EDG'ED, adjective Having a fine keen edge.

SHARPEN, verb transitive

1. To make sharp; to give a keen edge or a fine point to a thing; to edge; to point; as, to sharpen a knife, an ax or the teeth of a saw; to sharpen a sword.

All of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share and his coulter, and his ax and his mattock. 1 Samuel 8:1.

2. To make more eager or active; as, to sharpen the edge of industry.

3. To make more pungent and painful. The abuse of wealth and greatness may hereafter sharpen the sting of conscience.

4. To make more quick, acute or ingenious. The wit or the intellect is sharpened by study.

5. To render perception more quick or acute.

Th' air sharpen'd his visual ray

To objects distant far. Milton.

6. To render more keen; to make more eager for food or for any gratification; as, to sharpen the appetite; to sharpen a desire.

7. To make biting, sarcastic or severe. Sharpen each word.

8. To render less flat, or more shrill or piercing.

Inclosures not only preserve sound, but increase and sharpen it. Bacon.

9. To make more tart or acid; to make sour; as, the rays of the sun sharpen vinegar.

10. To make more distressing; as, to sharpen grief or other evis.

11. In music, to raise a sound by means of a sharp.

SH'ARPEN, verb intransitive To grow or become sharp.

SH'ARPER, noun A shrewd man in making bargains; a tricking fellow; a cheat in bargaining or gaming.

Sharpers, as pikes, prey upon their own kind. L'Estrange.

SH'ARPLY, adverb

1. With a keen edge or a fine point.

2. Severely; rigorously; roughly.

They are to be more sharply chastised and reformed than the rude Irish.

Spenser.

3. Keenly; acutely; vigorously; as the mind and memory sharply exercised.

4. Violently; vehemently.

At the arrival of English embassadors, the soldiers were sharply assailed with wants. Hayward.

5. With keen perception; exactly; minutely.

You contract your eye, when you would see sharply. Bacon.

6. Acutely; wittily; with nice discernment.

SH'ARPNESS, noun

1. Keenness of an edge or point; as the sharpness of a razor or a dart.

2. Not obtuseness.

3. Pungency; acidity; as the sharpness of vinegar.

4. Pungency of pain; keenness; severity of pain or affliction; as the sharpness of pain, grief or anguish.

5. Painfulness; afflictiveness; as the sharpness or calamity.

And the best quarrels in the heat are curst

By those that feel their sharpness. Shak.

6. Sverity of language; pungency; satirical sarcasm; as the sharpness of a satire or rebuke.

Some did all folly with just sharpness blame. Dryden.

7. Acuteness of intellect; the power of nice discernment; quickness of understanding; ingenuity; as sharpness of wit or understanding.

8. Quickness of sense or perception; as the sharpness of sight.

9. Keenness; sverity as the sharpness of the air or weather.

SH'ARP-SET, adjective [sharp and set.]

1. Eager in appetite; affected by keen hunger; ravenous; as an eagle or a lion sharp-set.

2. Eager in the desire for gratification.

The town is sharp-set on new plays. Pope.

SH'ARP-SHOOTER, noun [Sharp and shoot.] One skilled in shooting at an object with exactness; one skilled with the use of the rifle.

SH'ARP-SIGHTED, adjective [sharp and sight.]

1. Having quick or acute sight; as a sharp-sighted eagle or hawk.

2. Having quick discernment or acute understanding; as a sharp-sighted opponent; sharp-sighted judgement.

SH'ARP-VISAGED, adjective [sharp and visage.] Having a sharp or thin face.

SH'ARP-WITTED, adjective Having an acute or nicely discerning mind.