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Examples of being sharp, and what sharp people usually do?

Tomi
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    In the context of music? "The oboes are sharp!" (It means they are off-key, a bit too high-pitched.) When you ask a question here, first look in a dictionary, and report your results with your question. – GEdgar Aug 28 '15 at 16:32
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    Sharp can also be a synonym for smart, as in "He's a sharp kid". Or it can mean rude or harsh as in, "He was very sharp with me." But I'm confused as to why you are asking this question, when it would be much easier to just google "sharp definition" and check the first result. – milestyle Aug 28 '15 at 16:50
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    @Tomi- you have asked a lot of questions here all related to quick wittedness , astuteness, being sharp, etc. They are becoming rather cyclic. What, fundamentally, is your question? – Jim Aug 28 '15 at 16:52
  • @milestyle : Surprisingly, the google definitions of "sharp" are not terribly illuminating in this case... – Chris Sunami Aug 28 '15 at 17:49

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Sharp, with reference to a person, is typically a reduction of sharp witted, meaning having a quick and discerning intellect. This is probably by analogy to a knife --a mind able to "cut through" to the heart of a matter. It might also mean that the person has keen perceptions ("sharp eyesight", "sharp hearing"). Note, however, that the similar sounding sharp wit specifically means "cutting" (cruelly clever) humor.

If you saw someone looks sharp or is a sharp dresser that means the person is handsomely and fashionably dressed (being, perhaps, on the "cutting edge" of fashion).

These usages are all relatively informal, being metaphorical extensions of the dictionary definition of sharp:

having a thin edge that is able to cut things or a fine point that is able to make a hole in things. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sharp

Chris Sunami
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