Search the Dictionary

The quality or state of being keen.

Sharpness; keenness. [Obs.]

The faculty of nice discernment or perception; acumen; keenness; sharpness; sensitiveness; -- applied to the senses, or the understanding. By acuteness of feeling, we perceive small objects or slight impressions: by acuteness of intellect, we discern nice distinctions. Perhaps, also, he felt his professional acuteness…

acrid, in either a literal or figurative sense; implacableness; resentfulness; severity; keenness of reproach or sarcasm; deep distress, grief, or vexation of mind. The lip that curls with bitterness. Percival. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Job vii. 11.

To repress or weaken, as any appetite, desire, or power of the mind; to impair the force, keenness, or susceptibility, of; as, to blunt the feelings.

genera Aquila and Haliæetus. The eagle is remarkable for strength, size, graceful figure, keenness of vision, and extraordinary flight. The most noted species are the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaëtus); the imperial eagle of Europe (A. mogilnik or imperialis); the American bald eagle (Haliæetus leucocephalus); the Europe…

Sharpness; readiness of fitness to cut; keenness; intenseness of desire. The full edge of our indignation. Sir W. Scott. Death and persecution lose all the ill that they can have, if we do not set an edge upon them by our fears and by our vices. Jer. Taylor.

Keenness or sharpness; as, the fineness of a needle's point, or of the edge of a blade.

Having no point; blunt; wanting keenness; obtuse; as, a pointless sword; a pointless remark.

The quality or state of being pungent or piercing; keenness; sharpness; piquancy; as, the pungency of ammonia. "The pungency of menaces." Hammond.

To beat to obtuseness; to deprive of keenness; to blunt; to turn back the point of, as a lance used for exercise. But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge. Shak.

The quality of being sagacious; quickness or acuteness of sense perceptions; keenness of discernment or penetration with soundness of judgment; shrewdness. Some [brutes] show that nice sagacity of smell. Cowper. Natural sagacity improved by generous education. V. Knox.

To make the object of satire; to attack with satire; to censure with keenness or severe sarcasm. It is as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues. Swift.

The quality or condition of being sharp; keenness; acuteness.