What's the difference between rapier and sharp?

Rapier


Definition:

  • (n.) A straight sword, with a narrow and finely pointed blade, used only for thrusting.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Bloody-minded defending was switched to a rapier attack in the blink of an eye.
  • (2) Rapier added that the money announced in the White House initiative on Monday was not a large amount “in dollars” but was vital in terms of the principle of exploring a new approach to a problem that is “devastating” for those it affects and has blown up relatively recently in some areas.
  • (3) Until now it has been suggested that he bled to death within a couple of minutes, stabbed only once by a rapier.
  • (4) As the day went on the column revealed their bewilderment at David Cameron’s resignation, their shock at the Twitterstorm of “keenly worded, rapier-sharp attacks” from remainers, and their son’s suggestion of a therapeutic game of Monopoly.
  • (5) Rapier said it was the first time law enforcement and public health experts would specifically work together under a federal program to tackle the “new heroin epidemic”.
  • (6) The ABC report said the soldiers were hunting an insurgent bombmaker codenamed Rapier.
  • (7) Last weekend’s assault on the social and cultural centre in Hammersmith was carried out with a can of paint, but cut through the west London Polish community like a rapier, until the tip reached Jan Black.
  • (8) Depay, expected to start instead of the suspended Robin Van Persie but left on the bench in favour of underwhelming Jeremain Lens, added a second at the end from a rapier-like Arjen Robben run and cross.
  • (9) My consultant's notes refer to the tests simply as "bloods", which sounds nicely cavalier ("Huzzah, sir, pick up your rapier!")
  • (10) A Rapier short-range air defence system at Blackheath, London, in 2012.
  • (11) It seeks to use state power as a rapier not a bludgeon.
  • (12) Rapid rise of heroin use in US tied to prescription opioid abuse, CDC suggests Read more Rapier, who is from a federal law enforcement background, said many police officers had to come around to the idea that many drug addicts need a second or third chance to kick heroin without punishment, and controversial services such as public needle exchanges can work.
  • (13) The flower-in-buttonhole and smiling anecdote, the rapier mind, the warmth and generosity were his hallmarks.
  • (14) This is not a regular law enforcement initiative; we don’t just want to put people in jail,” Frank Rapier, the director of the Appalachia regional office of the federal high-intensity drug trafficking area program (HIDTA), told the Guardian.
  • (15) Everyone is in their own ‘silo’ and there are walls and barriers, which we don’t want in this fight Frank Rapier Experts are scrambling to deal with the rise in overdose deaths sparked by large numbers of people who had become dependent on prescription opioid painkillers then switched to heroin as a result of crackdowns on the flow of illegal or over-prescribed pills and the availability of cheap heroin.
  • (16) In a characteristic play on his words, Carr has called his current show Rapier Wit.
  • (17) He was selling some byproducts of Britain’s lucrative shooting industry (byproducts because the main product is “fun”): woodpigeon and 14 woodcock , their rapier-like beaks tucked inside their carcasses.
  • (18) The cost of insuring loans issued by Greece, Portugal and Ireland soared after Moody's interrupted the wrangling in the EU over how to bail out Greece for a second time with a Rapier missile.

Sharp


Definition:

  • (superl.) Having a very thin edge or fine point; of a nature to cut or pierce easily; not blunt or dull; keen.
  • (superl.) Terminating in a point or edge; not obtuse or rounded; somewhat pointed or edged; peaked or ridged; as, a sharp hill; sharp features.
  • (superl.) Affecting the sense as if pointed or cutting, keen, penetrating, acute: to the taste or smell, pungent, acid, sour, as ammonia has a sharp taste and odor; to the hearing, piercing, shrill, as a sharp sound or voice; to the eye, instantaneously brilliant, dazzling, as a sharp flash.
  • (superl.) High in pitch; acute; as, a sharp note or tone.
  • (superl.) Raised a semitone in pitch; as, C sharp (C/), which is a half step, or semitone, higher than C.
  • (superl.) So high as to be out of tune, or above true pitch; as, the tone is sharp; that instrument is sharp. Opposed in all these senses to flat.
  • (superl.) Very trying to the feelings; piercing; keen; severe; painful; distressing; as, sharp pain, weather; a sharp and frosty air.
  • (superl.) Cutting in language or import; biting; sarcastic; cruel; harsh; rigorous; severe; as, a sharp rebuke.
  • (superl.) Of keen perception; quick to discern or distinguish; having nice discrimination; acute; penetrating; sagacious; clever; as, a sharp eye; sharp sight, hearing, or judgment.
  • (superl.) Eager in pursuit; keen in quest; impatient for gratification; keen; as, a sharp appetite.
  • (superl.) Fierce; ardent; fiery; violent; impetuous.
  • (superl.) Keenly or unduly attentive to one's own interest; close and exact in dealing; shrewd; as, a sharp dealer; a sharp customer.
  • (superl.) Composed of hard, angular grains; gritty; as, sharp sand.
  • (superl.) Steep; precipitous; abrupt; as, a sharp ascent or descent; a sharp turn or curve.
  • (superl.) Uttered in a whisper, or with the breath alone, without voice, as certain consonants, such as p, k, t, f; surd; nonvocal; aspirated.
  • (adv.) To a point or edge; piercingly; eagerly; sharply.
  • (adv.) Precisely; exactly; as, we shall start at ten o'clock sharp.
  • (n.) A sharp tool or weapon.
  • (n.) The character [/] used to indicate that the note before which it is placed is to be raised a half step, or semitone, in pitch.
  • (n.) A sharp tone or note.
  • (n.) A portion of a stream where the water runs very rapidly.
  • (n.) A sewing needle having a very slender point; a needle of the most pointed of the three grades, blunts, betweens, and sharps.
  • (n.) Same as Middlings, 1.
  • (n.) An expert.
  • (v. t.) To sharpen.
  • (v. t.) To raise above the proper pitch; to elevate the tone of; especially, to raise a half step, or semitone, above the natural tone.
  • (v. i.) To play tricks in bargaining; to act the sharper.
  • (v. i.) To sing above the proper pitch.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Basal 20 alpha DHP levels remained low until a sharp rise at mid pro-oestrus.
  • (2) Whole-virus vaccines prepared by Merck Sharp and Dohme (West Point, Pa.) and Merrell-National Laboratories (Cincinnati, Ohio) and subunit vaccines prepared by Parke, Davis and Company (Detroit, Mich.) and Wyeth Laboratories (Philadelphia, Pa.) were given intramuscularly in concentrations of 800, 400, or 200 chick cell-agglutinating units per dose.
  • (3) Gonadectomy of females was accompanied by changes in the activity of individual HAS links in different direction--some reduction of ACTH in the hypophysis, a sharp and significant fall of the peripheral blood glucocorticoid level and a marked significant elevation of hydrococortisone production in the adrenal cortex in vitro.
  • (4) The University of the Arts London and Sunderland, Sheffield Hallam, Manchester Met and Leeds Met university have also experienced sharp declines in applications.
  • (5) A sharp decrease in oxygen uptake occurred in Neurospora crassa cells that were transferred from 30 degrees C to 45 degrees C, and the respiration that resumed later at 45 degrees C was cyanide-insensitive.
  • (6) In contrast to findings in the rat and dog, no sharp drop but a gradual fall in CLi was observed at decreasing FENa values down to 0.02%.
  • (7) A more specific differentiation, as indicated by the sharp increase in GAD levels which was concurrent with an increase in interneuronal contacts, lagged behind the initial growth.
  • (8) It appears that the decline in plasma IGF-I lags considerably behind the sharp fall in plasma GH levels and expression of hepatic IGF-I mRNA.
  • (9) Supplementation of Mg resulted in a sharp increase in serum PTH level with a rapid disappearance of the dissociation between the two immunoassays of PTH.
  • (10) A.CA animals were extremely susceptible, showing a sharp and sustained increase in parasitemia starting on day 12, followed by death no later than day 15 post-inoculation.
  • (11) There was a sharp transition with actin nearly saturated with S1: when the S1 to actin ratio was low, the kinetics were fast (K1 greater than 300 microM, k2 greater than 40 s-1); when it was high, they were slow (K1 = 14 microM, k2 = 2 s-1).
  • (12) Low calcium causes an increase in optimum frequency, a decrease in current threshold, and an increase in sharpness of tuning in both real axons and axons computed according to the Hodgkin-Huxley formulation; high calcium causes opposite effects.
  • (13) The Tea Party movement has turned climate denial into a litmus test of conservative credentials – and that has made climate change one of the most sharp divisions between Obama and Romney.
  • (14) The presence in lamprey kidney of a loop which is similar to Henle's loop in mammals and birds indicates that the development of the system of osmotic concentration conditioned by the formation in the kidney of the medulla and from a sharp increase in renal arterial blood supply.
  • (15) There is no longer a sharp dividing line between working and rentiering.
  • (16) We are going to see a sharp fall unless sellers hold the sector up by making aggressive offers.
  • (17) A sharp increase in the intensity of lipids biochemiluminiscence and decrease in the tissue homogenates biochemiluminiscence were observed during the period of progressive tumour growth on the 6-8 days following introduction of the virus.
  • (18) By no means is this a new theme, but it has taken on an added sharpness and urgency after the conferences.
  • (19) The blood lymphocytes were small with scanty cytoplasm, densely condensed nuclear chromatin, and deep clefts originating in sharp angles from the nuclear surface.
  • (20) In sharp contrast, the coverage provided by the various mainstream news channels and newspapers not only seems – with some exceptions – unresponsive and stilted, but often non-existent.