What's the difference between astute and shrewd?

Astute


Definition:

  • (a.) Critically discerning; sagacious; shrewd; subtle; crafty.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There is an enjoyment that comes with owning it, a pleasure, but also he is an astute businessman.
  • (2) Blair knew Short was close to Brown at the time and had astutely chosen her to be the messenger.
  • (3) With astute assessment and intervention, agitation can be prevented and treated to enhance recovery from critical illness.
  • (4) Latham is angry, outrageous, insulting – with a lifelong chip on his shoulder – as well as astute, brave and far more readable than most.
  • (5) The critical care nurse who is astute to the possible causes of postoperative delirium and to treatments and interventions required will help to minimize the morbidity associated with postoperative delirium.
  • (6) He and Hunt are too politically astute to fall out.
  • (7) The cause of his chief complaint and presenting symptoms challenged the astuteness of clinicians, surgeons, and histopathologists on two continents and the high seas.
  • (8) The astute Rawling pointed out to Klitschko that his opponent was capable of anything – Chisora had bitten one opponent in the ring while kissing another at a press conference.
  • (9) Under the astute, paternal Wicks, Cooper won his first nine fights, the ninth against an old foe, the 15-stone Bygraves, which was especially rewarding.
  • (10) However, she is the most astute image-shaper in sport bar none, seducing swathes of tame tennis writers to plug her sweets, charming hosts with just a hint of a smile, disarming critics with a pursed-lip frostiness of which Madonna would be proud.
  • (11) They alert the astute examiner to several life-threatening problems that result from both benign and malignant islet cell tumors, adenocarcinomas of the pancreas, and pancreatic endocrine and inflammatory diseases.
  • (12) Soaring land values and astute buying and selling have helped the value of the Crown Estate pass £10bn for the first time, a rise of 15% over the past year alone.
  • (13) Because, as Rafael Behr so astutely observed recently , when immigration minister Mark Harper's rhetoric, in justifying this deplorable campaign, strays in the same breath on to immigration in general putting "pressure on our infrastructure", the distinction between legal and illegal immigrant is lost.
  • (14) He is far too astute an analyst of comedy to be unaware of the danger of looking smug and there were sufficient layers of irony and knowing jokes within jokes for the conceit to work.
  • (15) As she matured she also developed into an astute and sensitive dance actor; her portrayal of characters such as Manon or Natalia Petrovna in A Month in the Country were refreshingly free of ballet cliche.
  • (16) As a portrait of modern society, it is startlingly astute – a scene with two schoolgirls arguing at a bus stop is uncanny in its depiction of south London slang, and speech mannerisms, and all the more notable because this is so rarely done accurately and with empathy.
  • (17) At one point Neymar began to compare himself to previous winners Ronaldo and Ronaldinho prompting Scolari to cut in, cuffing him fondly on the back of the neck while making an astute diversionary remark about comparable hairstyles.
  • (18) Physicians should focus astutely on internal and external sites of inflammation as possible focuses for tumor recurrence in the follow-up of the cancer patient.
  • (19) Although elderly patients may present a special challenge, the negative consequences of immobility can be avoided, to a significant extent, with astute and vigilant nursing management.
  • (20) Politically astute, photogenic and backed by his father’s political machine, Biden was elected attorney general of Delaware with 52.6% of the vote.

Shrewd


Definition:

  • (superl.) Inclining to shrew; disposing to curse or scold; hence, vicious; malicious; evil; wicked; mischievous; vexatious; rough; unfair; shrewish.
  • (superl.) Artful; wily; cunning; arch.
  • (superl.) Able or clever in practical affairs; sharp in business; astute; sharp-witted; sagacious; keen; as, a shrewd observer; a shrewd design; a shrewd reply.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The crucial additional feature of his nature, however, was that the apparently guileless charm was accompanied by a razor-sharp shrewdness.
  • (2) The brewer does not think the pipeline will pay back in less than 20 years, but it appears to be a shrewd commercial move.
  • (3) From child migrants to the doctors’ dispute, principled compromise should be the mantra of the shrewd politician.
  • (4) Wilson, though, quick to adopt new personas, and adapt to new circumstances, adored the attention, and shrewdly exploited his role as local minor celebrity when it came to what he was really interested in - helping Manchester to recreate itself as a major city, with its radical, inventive and progressive traditions intact.
  • (5) She pursued many reforms with energy, intelligence and political shrewdness.
  • (6) Raynor, however, had shrewdly appreciated what England's tactically naive Walter Winterbottom had disastrously not; that it was Hidegkuti, in his deep-lying position, who made the Hungarian wheels turn.
  • (7) Most of his £3bn is based on his shrewd purchase of BHS in 2000.
  • (8) There were occasional bursts of vivacity: the comment, when the Tory government economised on a booster station for the BBC World Service, that "Nation shall murmur unto nation"; shrewd opposition to entry into the ERM "at an unsustainable rate"; and an early warning to Nigel Lawson, in 1988, of the looming economic crisis.
  • (9) He remained an admirably efficient analyst of certain plays and human motivation, and a shrewd guide for those in search of something to go to.
  • (10) He admitted that he has "some big decisions to make" but was too shrewd to act on the spur of the moment, when his mind was still clouded with a disappointment that will linger for a long while yet.
  • (11) But there is a proviso: the region's youth bulge came hand-in-hand with high-quality education that prepared a generation for the marketplace – as well as shrewd economic policies that widened that marketplace in the first place.
  • (12) A shrewd former military officer, Sarkisian, 61, has been in charge of the small landlocked nation of 2.9 million since winning a vote in 2008.
  • (13) Acute came from acus , Latin for needle, later denoting pointed things, so cute at first meant “acute, clever, keen-witted, sharp, shrewd”, according to the 1933 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which doesn’t suggest the term could describe visual appearance.
  • (14) After repeated failures to clear Cairo’s city centre of street vendors … the Cairo governorate issued a shrewd decree,” wrote Abdelrahman, in an article she published last year.
  • (15) Aided by shrewd trading on capital markets, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs produced strong results this week but Citigroup and Bank of America , both of which have required huge injections of government money for survival, have struggled.
  • (16) Turnover Crystal Palace Accounts of CPFC 2010 Ltd for the year to 30 June 2015 • Ownership Steve Parish and US investors David Blitzer and Joshua Harris control the holding company; individual stakes not disclosed • Turnover 14th highest in League £102m , up from £90m in 2014 • Income Gate and match-day income £10m; Broadcasting & FA and PL income £80m; Sponsorship & advertising £4m; Commercial £5m; Other income £4m • Wage bill 15th highest in League £68m , up from £46m in 2014 • Wages as proportion of turnover 67% • Profit before tax £8m , following £23m profit in 2014 • Net debt £0 (£18m cash in bank) • Interest payable £0 • Highest-paid director No directors were paid State they are in: Palace finished 10th in 2014-15, maintaining their bounce under the shrewd stewardship of Steve Parish and his three fellow investors, all lifelong fans, who bought the club out of administration in 2010.
  • (17) Meanwhile, something’s afoot in the wind at Víctor’s old club, as Barcelona are looking at renewing the contracts of Leo Messi and Neymar , having shrewdly spotted they’re both decent.
  • (18) The recruitment document said, however, that a permanent secretary "balances ministers' or high-level stakeholders' immediate needs or priorities with the long-term aims of their department, being shrewd about what needs to be sacrificed, at what costs and what the implications might be".
  • (19) For a man who’s often considered a shrewd politician, David Cameron lets his government slide into an extraordinary number of damaging and unnecessary conflicts.
  • (20) A large man with a rumpled shirt, snowy beard and hair pulled into a ponytail, the commissioner resembles a hippy Santa Claus but is a tough, shrewd operator.

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