3. 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 odour; to the hearing, piercing, shrill, as a sharp sound or voice; to the eye, instantaneously brilliant, dazzling, as a sharp flash.
5. Very trying to the feelings; pierching; keen; severe; painful; distressing; as, sharp pain, weather; a sharp and frosty air. Sharp misery had worn him to the bones. (Shak) The morning sharp and clear. (Cowper) In sharpest perils faithful proved. (Keble)
6. Cutting in language or import; biting; sarcastic; cruel; harsh; rigorous; severe; as, a sharp rebuke. That sharp look. To that place the sharp Athenian law Can not pursue]] us. (Shak) Be thy words severe, Sharp as merits but the sword forbear. (Dryden)
7. Of keen perception; quick to discern or distinguish; having nice discrimination; acute; penetrating; sagacious; clever; as, a sharp eye; sharp sight, hearing, or judgment. Nothing makes men sharper . . . Than want. (Addison) Many other things belong to the material world, wherein the sharpest philosophers have never ye arrived at clear and distinct ideas. (L. Watts)
Sharp is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, sharp-cornered, sharp-edged, sharp-pointed, sharp-tasted, sharp-visaged, etc. Sharp practice, the getting of an advantage, or the attempt to do so, by a tricky expedient. To brace sharp, or To sharp up, to turn the yards to the most oblique position possible, that the ship may lie well up to the wind.
Synonym: keen, acute, piercing, penetrating, quick, sagacious, discerning, shrewd, 665 witty, ingenious, sour, acid, tart, pungent, acrid, severe, poignant, biting, acrimonious, sarcastic, cutting, bitter, painful, afflictive, violent, harsh, fierce, ardent, fiery.
Origin: OE. Sharp, scharp, scarp, AS. Scearp; akin to OS. Skarp, LG. Scharp, D. Scherp, G. Scharf, Dan. & Sw. Skarp, Icel. Skarpr. Cf. Escarp, Scrape, Scorpion.