Literary notes about sharp (AI summary)
The word “sharp” in literature works on many levels, acting as both a literal descriptor and a metaphorical tool to convey intensity. It is often used to denote precision or suddenness, as when time is marked exactly—“nine o’clock sharp” [1] or a character’s arrival at dinner “seven sharp” [2]—and to describe physical objects with crisp, defined edges like knives [3, 4] and blades [5]. Its figurative use enriches characterizations and settings, from the cutting force of a person’s words or attitude [6, 7] and a keen, perceptive nature [8], to the vivid contrasts in nature where “the rock on the right cuts the sky” in sharp contrast [9]. Additionally, “sharp” conveys the immediacy of sensation, whether in the sting of cold [10], a sudden pain [11, 12], or even the piercing sound of an unexpected noise [13].
- The train from Marseilles arrived at the station at nine o'clock sharp, left two passengers on the platform and went on toward Nice.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - She lives quietly, sings at concerts, drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for dinner.
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Have you provided a very sharp knife, in case of the worst?
— from The History of John Bull by John Arbuthnot - Four plates were laid, flanked by long knives, villainously sharp, attenuated brass spoons with flat bowls, and a pair of chopsticks.
— from A Diplomat in Japan by Ernest Mason Satow - Her sharp Damascus blade seemed out of place, and useless among rose-leaves.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - The other, his short, sharp, ill-tempered manner of speaking to the servants—which may be only a bad habit after all.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - "There is a woman coming," he said, and his voice was now sharp and earnest.
— from Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson - In the meantime the boy grew tall, and at the same time sharp and clever.
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm - Note how Corot, like Turner, brings his greatest light and dark together in sharp contrast where the rock on the right cuts the sky.
— from The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed - The cold was sharp, my right boot being frozen solid in a puddle in the morning.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman - From this state he was awakened—ages later, it seemed to him—by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation.
— from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce - When this woman embraced him, full of gratitude and devotion, he suddenly felt a strange pain which cut around his skull like a sharp incision.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - a sharp hiss pierced my ear on the other side.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë
