Search the Dictionary

ns closely, especially, one who cheats in bargains; a swinder; also, a cheating gamester. Sharpers, as pikes, prey upon their own kind. L'Estrange.

A sharper; one who cheats. [Slang] Johnson.

One who cheats; a sharper. [Colloq.] Spectator.

A sharper or pickpocket. [Obs. & Low] You filthy bung, away. Shak.

. Chevalier d'industrie ( Etym: [F.], one who lives by persevering fraud; a pickpocket; a sharper. -- The Chevalier St. George (Eng. Hist.), James Francis Edward Stuart (son of James II.), called "The Pretender." -- The Young Chevalier, Charles Edward Stuart, son of the Chevalier St. George.

A flatterer or deceiver; a sharper.

A cheat; a sharper; a deceiver. [Obs.] Minsheu.

y, etc. He which hath the sharp sword with two edges. Rev. ii. 12. Slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword. Shak.

A foister; a sharper. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

A sharper; a rogue. [Obs.] J. Webstar.

st, one who gained his living by giving false evidence on trials, or false bail; hence, a sharper in general. Nares. "A knight of the post, . . . quoth he, for so I am termed; a fellow that will swear you anything for twelve pence." -- Nash. -- Knight of the shire, in England, one of the representatives of a county in…

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.

r 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 nex…

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

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.