sharp
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ʃɑːp/
ipa: /ʃɑɹp/
rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)p
Forms: form: sharps
Etymology: From Middle English scharp, from Old English sċearp, from Proto-West Germanic *skarp, from Proto-Germanic *skarpaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerb-, from *(s)ker- (“to cut”).
Cognate with West Frisian skerp, Low German scherp, scharp, schaarp, Dutch scherp, German scharf, Danish skarp. Compare Irish cearb (“keen; cutting”), Latin acerbus (“tart, bitter”), Tocharian B kärpye (“rough”), Latvian skârbs (“sharp, rough”), Russian щерба (ščerba, “notch”), Polish szczerba (“gap, dent, jag, chip, nick, notch”), Albanian harb (“rudeness”). More at shear.
Senses: examples: text: The pitch pipe sounded out a perfect F♯ (F sharp).
text: Transposition frequently is harder to read because of all the sharps and flats on the staff.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: The symbol ♯, placed after the name of a note in the key signature or before a note on the staff to indicate that the note is to be played one chromatic semitone higher.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A note that is played one chromatic semitone higher than usual; denoted by the name of the note that is followed by the symbol ♯.
examples: text: The piece was difficult to read after it had been transposed, since in the new key many notes were sharps.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A note that is sharp in a particular key.
examples: text: Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" is written in C♯ minor (C sharp minor.)
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: The scale having a particular sharp note as its tonic.
examples: text: Place sharps in the specially marked red container for safe disposal.
text: If butchers had but the manners to go to sharps, gentlemen would be contented with a rubber at cuffs.
ref: c. 1700, Jeremy Collier, On Duelling:
glosses: Something that is sharp.
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: Something that is sharp.
A hypodermic syringe.
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: Something that is sharp.
A scalpel or other edged instrument used in surgery.
topics: government
healthcare
human-sciences
medicine
psychiatry
psychology
sciences
glosses: Something that is sharp.
A sharp object; any item pointed enough to injure human skin.
examples: text: The billiard sharp whom anyone catches / His doom's extremely hard— [...]
ref: 1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert; Arthur Sullivan, composer, “A More Humane Mikado”, in […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC, Act II, page 36:
text: The casino kept in the break room a set of pictures of known sharps for the bouncers to see.
text: This usage is often classified as variant spelling of shark, and unrelated to the 'pointed' or 'cutting' meanings of sharp.
glosses: A dishonest person; a cheater.
examples: text: here are good fish to be picked out of sharps and stop-holes into the water-tables
ref: 1858, Charles Kingsley, “Chalk Stream Studies”, in Fraser's Magazine:
glosses: Part of a stream where the water runs very rapidly.
glosses: A sewing needle with a very slender point, more pointed than a blunt or a between.
examples: text: While he worked he talked to his ducks, who were waddling about hopefully, as it was almost time for the red bucket to be filled with sharps and potato-peelings.
ref: 1954, Barbara Comyns, Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead, Dorothy, published 2010, page 21:
glosses: Fine particles of husk mixed with coarse particle of flour of cereals; middlings.
glosses: An expert.
examples: text: The Circle was one of the few dances the older sharps frequented; mostly they were to be found in pubs, pool-halls or at the track.
ref: 2006, Iain McIntyre, Tomorrow Is Today: Australia in the Psychedelic Era, 1966-1970:
glosses: A sharpie (member of Australian gangs of the 1960s and 1970s).
glosses: Alternative form of sharpie (“type of fishing boat”).
Derived terms: topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: A-sharp
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: B-sharp
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: C-sharp
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: double sharp
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: D-sharp
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: E-sharp
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: F-sharp
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: G-sharp
topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: sharp-and-a-half
sense: others
word: cardsharp
sense: others
word: card sharp
Related terms: topics: music
entertainment
lifestyle
word: accidental
word: flat
word: natural
word: ♯