| sharp | |
| 1. adj. Able to cut easily. | |
| I keep my knives sharp so that they don't slip unexpectedly while carving. | |
| 2. adj. (colloquial) Intelligent. | |
| My nephew is a sharp lad; he can count to 100 in six languages, and he's only five years old. | |
| 3. adj. Terminating in a point or edge; not obtuse or rounded. | |
| Ernest made the pencil too sharp and accidentally stabbed himself with it. | |
| a sharp hill; a face with sharp features | |
| 4. adj. (music) Higher than usual by one semitone (denoted by the symbol ♯ after the name of the note). | |
| 5. adj. (music) Higher in pitch than required. | |
| The orchestra's third violin several times was sharp about an eighth of a tone. | |
| 6. adj. Having an intense, acrid flavour. | |
| Milly couldn't stand sharp cheeses when she was pregnant, because they made her nauseated. | |
| 7. adj. Sudden and intense. | |
| A pregnant woman during labor normally experiences a number of sharp contractions. | |
| 8. adj. (colloquial) Illegal or dishonest. | |
| Michael had a number of sharp ventures that he kept off the books. | |
| 9. adj. (colloquial) Keenly or unduly attentive to one's own interests; shrewd. | |
| a sharp dealer; a sharp customer | |
| 10. adj. Exact, precise, accurate; keen. | |
| You'll need sharp aim to make that shot. | |
| 11. adj. Offensive, critical, or acrimonious. | |
| sharp criticism; When the two rivals met, first there were sharp words, and then a fight broke out. | |
| 12. adj. (colloquial) Stylish or attractive. | |
| You look so sharp in that tuxedo! | |
| 13. adj. Observant; alert; acute. | |
| Keep a sharp watch on the prisoners. I don't want them to escape! | |
| 14. adj. Forming a small 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. | |
| 15. adj. Steep; precipitous; abrupt. | |
| a sharp ascent or descent; a sharp turn or curve | |
| 16. adj. (mathematics, of a statement) 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. | |
| 17. adj. (chess) Tactical; risky. | |
| 18. adj. Piercing; keen; severe; painful. | |
| a sharp pain; the sharp and frosty winter air | |
| 19. adj. Eager or keen in pursuit; impatient for gratification. | |
| a sharp appetite | |
| 20. adj. (obsolete) Fierce; ardent; fiery; violent; impetuous. | |
| 21. adj. Composed of hard, angular grains; gritty. | |
| 22. adj. (phonetics, dated) Uttered in a whisper, or with the breath alone; aspirated; unvoiced. | |
| 23. adv. To a point or edge; piercingly; eagerly; sharply. | |
| 24. adv. (notcomp) Exactly. | |
| I'll see you at twelve o'clock sharp. | |
| 25. adv. (music) In a higher pitch than is correct or desirable. | |
| I didn't enjoy the concert much because the tenor kept going sharp on the high notes. | |
| 26. n. (music) 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 a 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. | |
| 27. n. (music) A note that is played a semitone higher than usual; denoted by the name of the note that is followed by the symbol ♯. | |
| 28. n. (music) 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. | |
| 29. n. (music) The scale having a particular sharp note as its tonic. | |
| Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" is written in C♯ minor (C sharp minor.) | |
| 30. n. (usually in the plural) Something that is sharp. | |
| Place sharps in the specially marked red container for safe disposal. | |
| 31. n. A sharp tool or weapon. | |
| 32. n. (medicine) A hypodermic syringe. | |
| 33. n. (medicine, dated) A scalpel or other edged instrument used in surgery. | |
| 34. n. A dishonest person; a cheater. | |
| 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. | |
| 35. n. Part of a stream where the water runs very rapidly. | |
| 36. n. A sewing needle with a very slender point, more pointed than a blunt or a between. | |
| 37. n. (in the plural) Fine particles of husk mixed with coarse particle of flour of cereals; middlings. | |
| 38. n. (slang) An expert. | |
| 39. n. A sharpie (member of Australian gangs of the 1960s and 1970s). | |
| 40. v. (music) 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! | |
| 41. v. To play tricks in bargaining; to act the sharper. | |
