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Sharpen   /ʃˈɑrpən/   Listen
verb
Sharpen  v. t.  (past & past part. sarpened; pres. part. sharpening)  To make sharp. Specifically:
(a)
To give a keen edge or fine point to; to make sharper; as, to sharpen an ax, or the teeth of a saw.
(b)
To render more quick or acute in perception; to make more ready or ingenious. "The air... sharpened his visual ray To objects distant far." "He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill."
(c)
To make more eager; as, to sharpen men's desires. "Epicurean cooks Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite."
(d)
To make more pungent and intense; as, to sharpen a pain or disease.
(e)
To make biting, sarcastic, or severe. "Sharpen each word."
(f)
To render more shrill or piercing. "Inclosures not only preserve sound, but increase and sharpen it."
(g)
To make more tart or acid; to make sour; as, the rays of the sun sharpen vinegar.
(h)
(Mus.) To raise, as a sound, by means of a sharp; to apply a sharp to.



Sharpen  v. i.  To grow or become sharp.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Sharpen" Quotes from Famous Books



... are prone to admire inordinately at first, and not finding a constant supply of food for this kind of sickly appetite, take a distaste to the object of their idolatry. To be even with themselves for their credulity, they sharpen their wits to spy out faults, and are delighted to find that this answers better than their first employment. It is a course of study, 'lively, audible, and full of vent.' They have the organ of wonder and the organ of fear in a prominent degree. The first requires new objects of admiration to ...
— Table-Talk - Essays on Men and Manners • William Hazlitt

... How to Sharpen the Wheel Cutter.—The right way to do this is difficult to describe in writing. You must, first of all, grind down the "shoulders" of the tool, through which the pivot of the wheel goes, for they are made so large that the wheel cannot reach the stone (fig. 6), and must be reduced (fig. 7). ...
— Stained Glass Work - A text-book for students and workers in glass • C. W. Whall

... the bellows are compressed, the other from the outwardly bent reed by suction (as in the American organ; see HARMONIUM) when the bellows are expanded. The pitch of the note is determined by the length and thickness of the reeds, reduction of the length tending to sharpen the note, while reduction of the thickness lowers it. The right hand plays the melody on the keyboard, while the left works the bellows and manipulates the two or three bass harmony keys, which sound the simple chords of ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... housemaid, who has remained faithful, and helps Miss Bence Jones to milk the cows and to attend to the dairy. The road is slippery on the high ground hard by, and it is debated at Lisselan House whether the farrier of the Dragoon Guards shall not be asked to "sharpen" the shoes of the animals employed there, for no local workman ...
— Disturbed Ireland - Being the Letters Written During the Winter of 1880-81. • Bernard H. Becker

... tissue—the only thing between him and death. I thought of it a day or two later when I was reading a book about the Austrian army officer's life, written by an English lady, and came across the phrase: '"Sharpen sabres!' was the ...
— Antwerp to Gallipoli - A Year of the War on Many Fronts--and Behind Them • Arthur Ruhl


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