What's the difference between sharp and splinter?

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.

Splinter


Definition:

  • (n.) To split or rend into long, thin pieces; to shiver; as, the lightning splinters a tree.
  • (n.) To fasten or confine with splinters, or splints, as a broken limb.
  • (v. i.) To become split into long pieces.
  • (n.) A thin piece split or rent off lengthwise, as from wood, bone, or other solid substance; a thin piece; a sliver; as, splinters of a ship's mast rent off by a shot.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) As the Democrats have often found in the US, when they have tried to construct rainbow coalitions out of class- and colour-defined blocs of the population, groups that can be counted on wholesale in theory often splinter into individuals that it may not be possible to count on at all.
  • (2) A splinter group of the nationalist National Liberation Front of Corsica had made a statement warning extremists that any attack on the island would trigger “a determined response, without any qualms”.
  • (3) Oleg Konstantinov, editor of local news site dumskaya.net, who was in hospital with gunshot wounds to his back and leg, and splinter wounds in his arm, said he had sent most of his reporters home for the two-day holiday.
  • (4) His National Congress party (NCP) feels sufficiently confident that it is not contesting 30% of the parliamentary seats, as an inducement to the splinter parties and smaller movements it has convinced to run in these elections.
  • (5) A patient with acute Leber's optic neuropathy had a large splinter retinal hemorrhage noted after he had strained to install fire hydrants.
  • (6) An elevated RP accumulation at the ends of the bone splinters was found from the 1st day after fracture.
  • (7) Splinter haemorrhages, hypocalcaemia and evidence of renal dysfunction were absent.
  • (8) The conclusion was drawn that the sciatic nerve is angulated at the osteotomy and further endangered by the risk of bone splintering at the sciatic notch.
  • (9) His power only grew after La Familia splintered, giving rise to the Knights Templar in 2011.
  • (10) In either case the chip waste also contains plenty of fine and finest compact chips which are broken off and splinter during the removal or knocking-off of the chips from solid bone.
  • (11) The various types of corticotomy, each with its own special purpose, include transverse or oblique, longitudinal, "splinter," and partial.
  • (12) Less than 24 hours after the murder, which many in Derry are blaming on the New IRA – an alliance of dissident republican splinter groups – the PSNI issued a description of Kieran McLaughlin.
  • (13) Extracts of Fernambouc splinters were made for serological testing.
  • (14) Last week a Taliban splinter group calling itself Asian Tigers executed Khalid Khawaja , a jihadi sympathiser it was holding hostage and accused of spying for the US and the Pakistani military.
  • (15) Iraq's "very future" will be determined in the coming days, the most senior US diplomat, John Kerry , said on Monday as he urged the country's feuding leaders to form a government and confront the jihadist surge currently splintering the country.
  • (16) Police inspector Mozammel Hoque said most of the injured were hit by bomb splinters but none was in critical condition.
  • (17) He wanted to check whether the abrasions and secondary wounds found on Steenkamp's body could have bee caused by wood splinters from the door.
  • (18) The duration of splinter hemorrhages ranged between six and 30 years.
  • (19) It can be shown that stone splinters do not injure the kidney tissue, but liquid jets generated by oscillating cavitation bubbles lead to tissue damage.
  • (20) Both excised lesions were abscesses, with associated granulomatous inflammation, fibrosis, and plant splinters.