(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.
Taper
Definition:
(n.) A small wax candle; a small lighted wax candle; hence, a small light.
(n.) A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness in an elongated object; as, the taper of a spire.
(a.) Regularly narrowed toward the point; becoming small toward one end; conical; pyramidical; as, taper fingers.
(v. i.) To become gradually smaller toward one end; as, a sugar loaf tapers toward one end.
(v. t.) To make or cause to taper.
Example Sentences:
(1) Axons emerge from proximal dendrites within 50 microns of the soma, and more rarely from the soma, in a tapering initial segment, commonly interrupted by one or two large swellings.
(2) The cases of S-type were changed to those of ST-type, which emphasized the Tapering type factors.
(3) The former possess a variety of spines, axonlike processes and sometimes an unmyelinated axon, and are presumably interneurons, while type IIB cells show a thick tapering axon that is probably myelinated.
(4) He presents measures for the management of withdrawal symptoms and relapse, focusing on the use of a slow taper over 3 to 6 months.
(5) In the experiments which covered exposure time from 4.5 to 17.0 s, we found that it started slowly, the reflectance increased rapidly once the surface temperature of the lesion reached approximately 90 degrees C. After this rapid rise, the reflectance began to taper off until no change in reflectance was recorded.
(6) During the 3-month tapering-off period eight initially improved patients (36%) in the cyclosporin group worsened, as did six (55%) in the placebo group.
(7) Special complications included postoperative renal deterioration, especially after tapering of megaureters.
(8) Yes, at the 2010 Conservative conference the party announced a similar cliff-edge at the higher rate tax threshold as a way of effectively means-testing child benefit payments, but that was eventually removed and replaced with a less egregious taper at the 2012 budget.
(9) Myocardial fibers were elongated and thinner (tapered) in the tips of papillary muscles.
(10) Urinary leakage in 3 patients with a right colonic reservoir (2 with an intussuscepted ileal nipple valve and 1 with a plicated ileal segment as a continence mechanism) was managed with tapered narrowing of the nipple valve and the ileocecal valve, respectively, using stapling techniques.
(11) Bad pun aside, investors are concerned that the company's high growth-rates are tapering.
(12) In addition, after incubation in ATP, they are intermingled with, and converge onto the surfaces of, thick, tapered filaments, which we have tentatively identified as of myosin-like nature.
(13) The spheroids grew exponentially with a volume-doubling time of approximately 24 h up to a diameter of approximately 580 microns and then the growth rate tapered off, more for spheroids grown at the low than at the high oxygen tension.
(14) The tapered tubes and constricted tubes are of special importance.
(15) It involves the deep white matter symmetrically, tapering off toward the cortex.
(16) Those on antihypertensive medication prior to enrollment without documented diastolic hypertension had their medication tapered and discontinued, and then met BP criteria (33% of cohort).
(17) It has not yet been possible to enumerate these tapered rods by culture methods, but as judged by visual appearances in the histological sections, they seemed to outnumber all other bacteria in the cecum and the colon by a factor of as much as 1000.
(18) Child benefit is to be withdrawn from families as soon as one parent hits earnings of £44,000, but any tapering would be costly and require ploughing money back via child tax credits.
(19) The imaging system consists of a ZnS(Ag) screen, two tapered fibers, an image intensifier, and a Polaroid film.
(20) The micropyle canal measures 8 microns at the opening and tapers to 3.6 microns as it penetrates the membrane.