SHARPEN in a Sentence

Learn SHARPEN from example sentences; some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

50 example sentences for SHARPEN, such as:

1. We had to sharpen our arguments.
2. Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.
3. Exercise will give you a sharpening figure back.
4. There is a need to sharpen the focus of the discussion.
5. Your wit is as sharp as a pencil right out of a pencil sharpener.

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 Meanings and Examples of SHARPEN
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
sharpen
 v.  make pointed; make sharp or sharper
Classic Sentence: (39 in 3 pages)
1  Upon my honour,' returned Markham, 'town seems to sharpen a man's appetite.
David Copperfield By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 24. MY FIRST DISSIPATION
2  As for the tribe itself, it had been content to announce to Montcalm, through his emissaries, with Indian brevity, that their hatchets were dull, and time was necessary to sharpen them.
The Last of the Mohicans By James Fenimore Cooper
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 28
3  Well, he wrote so furiously that he broke his pencil, and had, as you observe, to sharpen it again.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE THREE STUDENTS
4  Five great cities set up the anvil and sharpen the sword, strong Atina and proud Tibur, Ardea and Crustumeri, and turreted Antemnae.
The Aeneid By Virgil
Context  Highlight   In BOOK SEVENTH
5  It was the sense of his helplessness that sharpened his antipathy.
Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In VII
6  Now, her emotions were sharpened by her long dreams of him, heightened by the repression she had been forced to put on her tongue.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XV
7  They were on their way to the entrenchments that ringed the town--no shallow, hastily dug trenches, these, but earthworks, breast high, reinforced with sandbags and tipped with sharpened staves of wood.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XVIII
8  She remembered, too, with hate sharpened by envy the red plaid dress, the red-topped boots with tassels and the pancake hat of Emmie Slattery.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXII
9  She was Gerald's own daughter and the shrewd trading instinct she had inherited was now sharpened by her needs.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVIII
10  At each road-crossing she had to crawl over a cattle-guard of sharpened timbers.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XII
11  One of these men told Jurgis that he had sharpened three thousand pieces of steel a day for thirteen years.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 20
12  With a memory sharpened to almost preternatural clearness, she remarked every turn in the road, and formed a mental estimate of the time to be occupied in traversing it.
Uncle Tom's Cabin By Harriet Beecher Stowe
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXIX
13  It was impossible to doubt him; there was truth in every one of its thin and sharpened lineaments.
Oliver Twist By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XII
14  His whole face sharpened away into nose and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over his outstanding bones.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER’S THUMB
15  In the middle of it rose two great stones, worn and sharpened at the upper end until they looked like the huge corroding fangs of some monstrous beast.
The Hound of the Baskervilles By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 8. First Report of Dr. Watson
Example Sentence:
1  I mope for a while, during which I may curse some more because a good curse needs mileage to really sharpen its impact.
2  We had to sharpen our arguments.
3  There is a need to sharpen the focus of the discussion.
4  Our cat likes to sharpen her claws on the legs of the dining table.
5  A blunt knife may be sharpened on a stone, but if a man is stupid there is no help for his stupidity.
6  The case of Harris has sharpened the debate over capital punishment.
7  A knife is sharpened on the grindstone; steel is tempered in fire.
8  Exercise will give you a sharpening figure back.
9  As selfishness and complaint cloud the mind,so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.
10  Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.
11  Your wit is as sharp as a pencil right out of a pencil sharpener.