(a.) To give a keen edge or fine point to; to make sharper; as, to sharpen an ax, or the teeth of a saw.
(a.) To render more quick or acute in perception; to make more ready or ingenious.
(a.) To make more eager; as, to sharpen men's desires.
(a.) To make more pungent and intense; as, to sharpen a pain or disease.
(a.) To make biting, sarcastic, or severe.
(a.) To render more shrill or piercing.
(a.) To make more tart or acid; to make sour; as, the rays of the sun sharpen vinegar.
(a.) To raise, as a sound, by means of a sharp; to apply a sharp to.
(v. i.) To grow or become sharp.
Example Sentences:
(1) This paper employs a rhetorical form designed to clarify and sharpen the focus of the very special stance required--which must be painstakingly learned under careful supervision--in order to effectively tune in to communications coming from the unconscious of the patient.
(2) Although not all reported unconventional applications of antimicrobial agents remain in use, sharpening awareness of their multifaceted actions should encourage broader understanding of all agents traditionally confined to specific uses.
(3) The surprise return of Saleh last month, after recovering in Saudi Arabia from an assassination attempt, has plunged the country into deeper uncertainty and sharpened the differences between pro- and anti-government camps.
(4) Ear-piercing techniques include needles, safety pins, sharpened studs, and self-piercing kits.
(5) The factory sharpened scalers exhibited metallic extensions from the lateral surface (wire edges).
(6) Disruption of visual activity, either by blocking activity with intraocular tetrodotoxin (TTX; Schmidt and Edwards, 1983) or by synchronizing activity with strobe illumination (Schmidt and Eisele, 1985), disrupts the sharpening process: the map is correctly oriented but the multiunit receptive fields at each point average 25-40 degrees in diameter.
(7) NaOH or 1 M acetate buffer at pH 6.0 sharpened e.p.r.
(8) The addition of 1 mM MgATP leads to a sharpening of the length distribution around 1.5 micron without change in the 16 nm diameter.
(9) During this period, the intensity of transcription in presomitic and somitic mesoderm declines relative to that in the overlying neural ectoderm, and the transcription boundary within the presumptive hindbrain region sharpens.
(10) The overall sense is of YouTube sharpening its focus on its most popular content, both in terms of individual channels and entire categories.
(11) The day before the murder you Adebolajo bought five knives and a knife sharpener – which you used to sharpen some of the knives in preparation for their use in the murder.
(12) The sharpening dispute over the Senkaku islands, known as Diaoyu in China , is the most recent product of this old narrative of violence, hatred, fear and grief that continues, sporadically, to obstruct both nations in their efforts to forge a more stable, trusting relationship.
(13) Hagan himself used to work in the car industry, and brought a similar shift operation and level of automation to the housing factory to sharpen up the process.
(14) Jam is often used but this can make it too sweet – if you do use jam try mixing in a little lemon juice to sharpen things up.
(15) By the time the latest spat came before the FCC, Karr argues, net activists had sharpened their tactics and raised their game.
(16) To improve the definitions, eliminate overlapping diagnostic categories, and sharpen the fuzzy boundaries that contribute substantially to limited reproducibility, we suggest: (1) the categories of astrocytoma nos, fibrillary astrocytoma, and protoplasmic astrocytoma be collapsed into a single category of astrocytoma; (2) the diagnostic category of desmoplastic medulloblastoma be combined with medulloblastoma; and (3) the criteria for anaplasia should be further refined to include quantification of critical histologic features, e.g., agreed upon operational definitions for amount of cell density, number of mitoses and pleomorphism for anaplastic astrocytoma and anaplastic ependymoma.
(17) Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let’s use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy and remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together … If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate – as it should – let’s make sure it’s worthy of those we have lost.
(18) When sharpened with citrus and lubricated with olive oil, this is a real delight.
(19) His friend Dingle Foot drafted an editorial that David then sharpened up, inserting phrases that summed up his outlook: 'We had not realised that our government was capable of such folly and crookedness...It is no longer possible to bomb countries because you fear that your trading interests will be harmed...this new feeling for the sanctity of human life is the best element in the modern world.'
(20) The temperature profiles of turbidity (TP tau) of the cyclododecapeptide are analogous to those of the polyhexapeptide where increases in concentration lead to translations of the profiles to lower temperature without sharpening of the transition.
Sharper
Definition:
(n.) A person who bargains closely, especially, one who cheats in bargains; a swinder; also, a cheating gamester.
Example Sentences:
(1) Kim Kardashian: Hollywood could benefit from a sharper script and more willingness – or freedom, which may be the issue given the game’s official status – to poke at the culture it’s representing.
(2) It seems to have brought his own beliefs into sharper focus: "Watching the film, and I've seen many cuts, I'm a guy who fights the idea of heaven but what I do respect is that there is a greater power than anything we understand, and for me the film is about that.
(3) Parties seek a sharper definition and a clearer purpose: voters rightly demand a reason to rule beyond Cameron’s laconic “because I thought I’d be good at it”.
(4) Text is said to appear sharper, while a "control centre" on the phone allows users to adjust settings with just one swipe from the bottom of the screen.
(5) It's no coincidence that both novels are about how easily children can be warped or damaged, but of the two it is the shorter, sharper Great Expectations that has aged better.
(6) In 6-d and older myotubes, A bands became increasingly more aligned, their edges sharper, and the separation between them (I bands) wider.
(7) (iii) Shrunken gels give sharper photographic images and provide better interlane protein band comparisons.
(8) At low percentages of Hb-F, the sharper zone of the Tris method is more easily visible than that of the Bis-tris method, but the latter is a somewhat more rapid procedure.
(9) During the hyperglycemic clamp pubertal children showed enhanced insulin responses and in turn a sharper fall in amino acids (P less than 0.05 vs. prepubertals).
(10) The positivity may be related to the effort needed to inhibit associated movements in order to perform a sharper and more discrete response.
(11) Although the female preponderance of human thyroid cancer was not seen in dogs, females showed a much sharper increase in risk with advancing age than did males.
(12) SC and EGB subfractions showed a considerable decrease in the enzyme activity of dogs aged 3 months; this peculiarity persisted up to the 6-month age in the above formations, especially in the subfractions B, C, D and E. Dogs aged 1 year exhibited a sharper decrease in the general activity of the enzyme of formations C, D, E in EGB and SC.
(13) Six months after treatment the sample as a whole showed good maintenance of treatment effects, but the differences between groups had become somewhat sharper, with the special behavior therapy group faring best, the regular behavior therapy group intermediate, and the psychotherapy group worst.
(14) The clinical correlate is "sharper bronchoalveolar respiration".
(15) The visitors had started looking significantly sharper and took a surprise lead after 91 seconds through Tomas Malec, although Ahmed Elmohamady equalised with a header to send the teams in level at half-time.
(16) The potential role of nonlinearities in the magnetic field gradient in magnetic resonance imaging for producing sharper boundaries for the excited spin slice region is investigated.
(17) "The review of public procurement is examining whether the UK is making best use of the application of EU procurement rules, as well as the degree to which the government can set out requirements and evaluation criteria with a sharper focus on the UK's strategic interest and how the government can support businesses and ensure that when they compete for work they are doing it on an equal footing with their competitors."
(18) The contrast with the treatment of the 2014 crash of Malaysian airlines MH17 in eastern Ukraine could hardly be sharper.
(19) In the mouse PBL system, after administration by gavage, B[l]A was more cytotoxic and produced a sharper elevation in SCE frequency than B[a]P.
(20) Lippi's spectre came into sharper focus after the Fiorentina defeat, with whispers across the pages of the football press and furious blogging to and fro on Juve's website - echoing Ranieri's Chelsea days, actually, with most fans urging support for Il Mister and concentration on the matter in hand, whatever the long term.