(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.) 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.
Shrill
Definition:
(v. i.) Acute; sharp; piercing; having or emitting a sharp, piercing tone or sound; -- said of a sound, or of that which produces a sound.
(n.) A shrill sound.
(v. i.) To utter an acute, piercing sound; to sound with a sharp, shrill tone; to become shrill.
(v. t.) To utter or express in a shrill tone; to cause to make a shrill sound.
Example Sentences:
(1) There’ll never be another like him,” she shrilled when she recovered.
(2) He should conduct this conversation factually, carefully, without loud or shrill tones.
(3) Sorry, I mean it would be the department of trade.” She gives a shrill, uneasy laugh.
(4) They also spend excessive time in making unusual sounds consisting of a high-pitched shrill cry with little intonation in infancy and a harsh, strained, and glottal stridency in later life.
(5) Morrison has described claims that Australia was violating international law as offensive and labelled criticism of his silence over the fate of the two boats "shrill and hysterical".
(6) 2.13pm GMT He calls the idea that we have lost track of terrorist plotters as a result of these disclosures "shrill and unsubstantiated".
(7) A grandmother of five, Jones sports a discrete shrill carder bumblebee tattoo on her shoulder courtesy of taking part in a green art project.
(8) Dave meanwhile lapsed into his shrill Bullingdon Club persona; the dividing line between self confidence and smugness is gossamer thin for the prime minister.
(9) Let it be said clearly that the press – divided, suspicious, too often shrill – is no easy partner in this search.
(10) In the context of the increasingly shrill debate around migration and Europe, this week's the Mail on Sunday included an article attacking the non-profit organisation European Alternatives , of which I am co-president.
(11) "Navalny carefully distanced himself from the shrill, old-guard western-friendly liberals – 'hellish, insane, crazy mass of the leftovers and bread crusts of the democracy movement of the 80s', he called them – who simply participated in Putin's cult of personality in reverse."
(12) Winners and losers Going: Species facing "severe" threats in England Red squirrel Northern bluefin tuna Natterjack toad Common skate Alpine foxtail Kittiwake Grey plover Shrill carder bumblebee Recovering: Recent conservation success stories Pole cat Large blue butterfly Red kite Ladybird spider Pink meadowcap Sand lizard Pool frog Bittern
(13) Even at school throughout the school day you would be teaching and next door in the secure accommodation unit you could hear someone, this shrill scream, as they just cry out because they’ve lost it, absolutely lost it, or self-harmed,” Reen said.
(14) The shrill blast of a whistle still makes Almaz Russom wince.
(15) His later years, as the preachments of abolitionists and slaveholders reached their shrill adumbration of bloody war, were marked, even made notorious, by his fiery championing of John Brown, whom he had briefly met in Concord, finding him "a man of great common sense, deliberate and practical", endowed with "tact and prudence" and the Spartan habits and spare diet of a soldier.
(16) The risks are in being ignored entirely or forcing an interjection and appearing “shrill” – the death shriek for women trying to get ahead anywhere.
(17) The shameful destruction of New Orleans, the Wall Street crash of 2008 and growing indebtedness to China, the collapse of so many industries and the shrill ideological divisions in Congress over monetary and fiscal policy can all be traced to habits ingrained in the Reagan years when the notion took hold that "the government is not the solution to our problems; the government is the problem".
(18) He says it's hyperventilation from a shrill government.
(19) It can be a bit shrill One long-serving maker of risky BBC television programmes argues that behind the compliance craze is a bigger loss of nerve.
(20) The shepherd lad held on steadily, driving his goats with shrill cries up our hill for the better pasture on the western side.