Search the Dictionary

ccompaniment of a harp or other instrument; in modern times, a poet; a bard; a singer and harper; a musician. Chaucer.

Covered with, or wearing, a moccasin or moccasins. "Moccasined feet." Harper's Mag.

ho is neutral. The neutral, as far as commerce extends, becomes a party in the war. R. G. Harper.

One who plunders; especially, a plunderer of wrecks; a pirate; a corsair; a marauder; a sharper. Sir W. Temple.

A miser; also, a sharper. Dr. H. More.

An unsuspected victim of sharpers; a gull. [Slang] Blue pigeon (Zoöl.), an Australian passerine bird (Graucalus melanops); -- called also black-faced crow. -- Green pigeon (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of Old World pigeons belonging to the family Treronidæ. -- Imperial pigeon (Zoöl.), any one of the large Asia…

To shorten the radius of (a curve); to make (a curve) sharper; as, to quicken the sheer, that is, to make its curve more pronounced.

Ringed dotterel. (Zoöl.) See Dotterel, and Illust. of Pressiroster. -- Ring dropper, a sharper who pretends to have found a ring (dropped by himself), and tries to induce another to buy it as valuable, it being worthless. -- Ring fence. See under Fence. -- Ring finger, the third finger of the left hand, or the next…

A trickish, rapacious fellow; a cheat; a sharper. Wycherley.

some one, in office. [Colloq.] "Both, after a brief service, were rotated out of office." Harper's Mag.

One who hunts victims for sharpers. Shak.

A rapacious, artful person; a sharper. [Colloq.]

sagacious; clever; as, a sharp eye; sharp sight, hearing, or judgment. Nothing makes men sharper . . . than want. Addison. Many other things belong to the material world, wherein the sharpest philosophers have never yeL. Watts.

To give a keen edge or fine point to; to make sharper; as, to sharpen an ax, or the teeth of a saw.

One who is close in bargains; a sharper. Swift.

requirements; restrictive; rigid; severe; as, stringent rules. They must be subject to a sharper penal code, and to a more stringent code of procedure. Macaulay. -- Strin"gent*ly, adv. -- Strin"gent*ness, n.

onate, disulphide, and acid sulphate), which retain the old meanings of super-, but with sharper definition. Cf. Acid, a., Bi-, Di-, and Per-.

dging favors; not expressing thankfulness; unthankful; ungrateful. That she may feel How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child! Shak.

dress; -- usually with out, implying care, elaborateness, or the like. [Colloq. or Slang] Harper's Weekly.

. [Colloq.] The prey of ring droppers, . . . duffers, touters, or any of those bloodless sharpers who are, perhaps, better known to the police. Dickens.