Sharpen
King James Dictionary [1]
1. To make sharp to give a keen edge or a fine point to a thing to edge to point as, to sharpen a knife, an ax or the teeth of a saw to sharpen a sword.
All of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share and his coulter, and his ax and his mattock. 1 Samuel 8 .
2. To make more eager or active as, to sharpen the edge of industry. 3. To make more pungent and painful. The abuse of wealth and greatness may hereafter sharpen the sting of conscience. 4. To make more quick, acute or ingenious. The wit or the intellect is sharpened by study. 5. To render perception more quick or acute.
Th' air sharpen'd his visual ray
To objects distant far. Milton.
6. To render more keen to make more eager for food or for any gratification as, to sharpen the appetite to sharpen a desire. 7. To make biting, sarcastic or severe. Sharpen each word. 8. To render less flat, or more shrill or piercing.
Inclosures not only preserve sound, but increase and sharpen it. Bacon.
9. To make more tart or acid to make sour as, the rays of the sun sharpen vinegar. 10. To make more distressing as, to sharpen grief or other evis. 11. In music, to raise a sound by means of a sharp.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( a.) To make more pungent and intense; as, to sharpen a pain or disease.
(2): ( a.) To make sharp.
(3): ( a.) To give a keen edge or fine point to; to make sharper; as, to sharpen an ax, or the teeth of a saw.
(4): ( a.) To render more quick or acute in perception; to make more ready or ingenious.
(5): ( a.) To make more eager; as, to sharpen men's desires.
(6): ( a.) To make biting, sarcastic, or severe.
(7): ( a.) To render more shrill or piercing.
(8): ( a.) To make more tart or acid; to make sour; as, the rays of the sun sharpen vinegar.
(9): ( a.) To raise, as a sound, by means of a sharp; to apply a sharp to.
(10): ( v. i.) To grow or become sharp.
