What's the difference between sharp and vitriolic?

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.

Vitriolic


Definition:

  • (a.) Of or pertaining to vitriol; derived from, or resembling, vitriol; vitriolous; as, a vitriolic taste. Cf. Vitriol.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Academic and TV historian Mary Beard has disclosed her innovative approach to dealing with her vitriolic Twitter trolls – writing them a job reference.
  • (2) For every “coterie” of Audens, Spenders and Isherwoods, there is a chorus of George Orwells, Roy Campbells and Dylan Thomases, spitting vitriol.
  • (3) Bin Laden, who was 54 when he died, also had a copy of The America I Have Seen, a vitriolic memoir of a short trip to the US by the Egyptian thinker and activist Syed Qutb , considered the godfather of modern jihadi thinking and hanged in 1966.
  • (4) They do not step up to defend the government, its leaders, and their policies from criticism, no matter how vitriolic; indeed, they seem to avoid controversial issues entirely,” the study’s authors write of members of China’s “enormous workforce” of online propagandists.
  • (5) Melanie is a columnist for the Daily Mail and is mostly known for her knee-jerk, right-wing, hang-em-high vitriol.
  • (6) As one long-time British journalist told me this week when discussing the vitriol of the British press toward Assange: "Nothing delights British former lefties more than an opportunity to defend power while pretending it is a brave stance in defence of a left liberal principle."
  • (7) Like many, I was shocked and disturbed by the vitriolic attacks on women by the website and its supporters.
  • (8) I don’t believe it is that vitriolic or open or contentious,” he said.
  • (9) A conservative education commentator reviewing the national curriculum has hit back at “vitriolic” attacks on his credentials, arguing he would be “near the top of the list” of people best qualified to examine the issue.
  • (10) If I was allowed to use more vitriolic words to describe them, I would.
  • (11) But that is nothing compared to the vitriol and even death threats she has been exposed to since emerging as the principal legal challenger to the government’s Brexit plans.
  • (12) Whereas the guitarist made his remarks on Twitter, restraining himself to just 76 characters, Morrissey used the blog True to You to issue 11 paragraphs of vegetarian vitriol .
  • (13) Photograph: Teri Pengilley for the Guardian In Scotland, vitriol replaced or supplemented sour milk and citric acid in textile bleaching and dyeing at a time when linen and cotton were Scotland’s largest manufacturing industries.
  • (14) Few who spew this vitriol would dare speak with the type of personalized scorn toward, say, George Bush or Tony Blair – who actually launched an aggressive war that resulted in the deaths of at least 100,000 innocent people and kidnapped people from around the globe with no due process and sent them to be tortured.
  • (15) Elsewhere in Cairo, many pro-army Egyptians – protesting at counter-demonstrations – launched similar vitriol at Morsi's supporters, in an indication of Egypt's deep divisions.
  • (16) There’s no bitterness or vitriol on show here, musically at least, with Bowman’s laidback vocals gliding serenely over a juddering, stop-­start beat that eventually disintegrates.
  • (17) With the kind of behaviour and vitriol that exists on Twitter and in public discourse about female politicians, and women more generally, I think it’s really naive to think that it exists in a bubble and doesn’t infiltrate culture more generally, and that it won’t influence behaviour,” says Claire Annesley, professor of politics at the University of Sussex.
  • (18) However, there is another pernicious reason for our failure to act: the bitter, often vitriolic campaigns of climate change deniers – men and women (but mostly men) who simply refuse to accept that humanity is changing weather systems.
  • (19) Haaland shakes his head as he recalls the vitriol in Keane's words: "It was the worst tackle ever, especially as he obviously set out to do it, as he says in his book.
  • (20) aegypti sensitivity to bird malaria agent P. gallinaceum by sublethal concentrations of herbicides (ordram and propanide) and fungicides (fundozol and blue vitriol) introduced into the larvae habitation medium or into the imago feed.