verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
sharpen a knife (= make it sharper )
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What's the best way to sharpen a knife?
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
up
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You've got all your other senses, sharpened up nicely.
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The antagonistic interactions tend to sharpen up some otherwise fuzzy boundaries, since they serve to exaggerate the differences.
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Instead of sharpening up their act, they sharpen up their prices and cover their tracks.
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They're worth watching and they deserve better than they're getting, but they've got to sharpen up in front of goal.
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The Rogich plan is to sharpen up the focus, as well as the pace.
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Too many guys down there with their ears all sharpened up .
■ NOUN
edge
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Downward facing points are sharpened along their edges and not across the front faces.
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See, it has no proper point, and it is sharpened along one edge only.
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The main effect of liberalisation was to sharpen the edge of peasant discontent.
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Erosion had sharpened its edges and although the drivers trundled gently in bottom gear, there were two punctures.
focus
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The Rogich plan is to sharpen up the focus , as well as the pace.
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The resulting increase in production should sharpen the instructional focus of the materials.
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He sharpens the focus to the right leg and quickens his walk immediately.
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While reading the anonymous notes the glimmering of an idea had come to him but he could not sharpen the focus .
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He blinked, glanced her way, and then blinked again, his eyes sharpening into sudden focus .
knife
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While he sharpens his knife the priest arrives.
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Anderson towered above it, carefully sharpening his knife .
pencil
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Philip sharpened one of his pencils that Lee must have broken, sharpened it too much and the lead broke again.
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R.: an ordinary clipboard and a sharpened yellow pencil .
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Livesey is quite capable of looking after that particular angle, and no doubt he is sharpening his pencil for this purpose already.
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I used to take candy bars, little toys, sharpened pencils , anything small and easy to mail to school.
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Pursuivant sharpened his pencil , opened his notebook, and wrote down the date.
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He also threatened her by holding a sharpened pencil tip to one of her eyes.
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She pulled a fresh pile of paper from her desk drawer, sharpened her pencil and got down to work.
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I arrange my papers in an orderly fashion on my driftwood desk and sharpen my pencils , as I always do.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Sharpen all your pencils before the test.
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My mother used a special stone to sharpen kitchen knives.
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Nick sat down at his desk, sharpened his pencil and began to draw.
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Recent developments have given our leaders a sharpened sense of responsibility.
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The images sharpened on screen as the camera focused.
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This course will give students a chance to sharpen their problem-solving skills.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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A brief moon between clouds outside sharpened the lines of boxwood that led to the wooden gate.
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At San Quentin, Kirkpatrick stabbed one of his lawyers 17 times with a sharpened toothbrush.
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Below 200 K the chains are virtually immobile, but above 200 K the lines sharpen as rotation begins.
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In the dying light other songbirds sharpen calls and phrases, some learned in far places, other continents.
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It wasn't electric, and they never sharpened the barbed wire at the top.
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Knock it senseless every hour when it raised its fanged head and decided to sharpen its nasty little claws.
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The resulting increase in production should sharpen the instructional focus of the materials.