different between sharp vs express

English

Etymology

From Middle English scharp, from Old English s?earp, from Proto-Germanic *skarpaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerb-. Cognate with West Frisian skerp, Low German scharp, Dutch scherp, German scharf, Danish skarp. Compare Irish cearb (“keen; cutting”), Latin acerbus (“tart, bitter”), Tocharian B kärpye (“rough”), Latvian skârbs (“sharp, rough”), Russian ????? (š?erba, “notch”), Polish szczerba (“gap, dent, jag, chip, nick, notch”), Albanian harb (“rudeness”), from *(s)ker- (“to cut”). More at shear.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???p/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???p/
• Rhymes: -??(?)p

Adjective

sharp (comparative sharper, superlative sharpest)

1. Terminating in a point or edge, especially one that can cut easily; not obtuse or rounded.

2. (colloquial) Intelligent.
3. (music) Higher than usual by one semitone (denoted by the symbol ? after the name of the note).
4. (music) Higher in pitch than required.

5. Having an intense, acrid flavour.

6. Sudden and intense.

   • She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact.

7. (colloquial) Illegal or dishonest.

8. (colloquial) Keenly or unduly attentive to one's own interests; shrewd.
9. Exact, precise, accurate; keen.
11. Offensive, critical, or acrimonious.

12. (colloquial) Stylish or attractive.

13. Observant; alert; acute.

14. Forming a small angle; especially, forming an angle of less than ninety degrees.
    • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,

      The street down which Warwick had come intersected Front Street at a sharp angle in front of the old hotel, forming a sort of flatiron block at the junction, known as Liberty Point

15. Steep; precipitous; abrupt.

16. (mathematics, of a statement) Said of as extreme a value as possible.

17. (chess) Tactical; risky.
    • 1963, Max Euwe, Chess Master Vs. Chess Amateur (page xviii)

      Time and time again, the amateur player has lost the opportunity to make the really best move because he felt bound to follow some chess "rule" he had learned, rather than to make the sharp move which was indicated by the position.

    • 1975, Lud?k Pachman, Decisive Games in Chess History (page 64)

      In such situations most chess players choose the obvious and logical way: they go in for sharp play. However, not everyone is a natural attacking player […]

18. Piercing; keen; severe; painful.
19. Eager or keen in pursuit; impatient for gratification.

20. (obsolete) Fierce; ardent; fiery; violent; impetuous.
21. Composed of hard, angular grains; gritty.
22. (phonetics, dated) Uttered in a whisper, or with the breath alone; aspirated; unvoiced.
23. (obsolete) Hungry.
    • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, II.iii.1:

      “[W]hy this last week we ha'n't had nothing at all but some dry musty red herrings; so you may think, Miss, we're kept pretty sharp!”

Synonyms

• (able to cut easily): keen, razor, razor-sharp
• (intelligent): brainy, bright, intelligent, keen, smart, witty
• (able to pierce easily): pointed
• (having an intense and acrid flavour): acrid, pungent
• (sudden and intense): abrupt, acute, stabbing
• (illegal, dishonest): dishonest, dodgy, illegal, illicit, underhand
• (accurate): accurate, exact, keen, precise
• (critical): acrimonious, bitter, cutting, harsh, hostile, nasty
• (stylish, attractive): chic, elegant, smart, stylish
• (observant): acute, alert, keen, observant, sharp-eyed

Antonyms

• (able to cut easily): blunt, dull
• (intelligent): dim, dim-witted, slow, slow-witted, thick
• (able to pierce easily): blunt
• (higher than usual by one semitone): flat
• (music: higher in pitch than required): flat
• (having an intense and acrid flavour): bland, insipid, tasteless
• (sudden and intense): dull
• (illegal, dishonest): above-board, honest, legit, legitimate, reputable
• (accurate): inaccurate, imprecise
• (critical): complimentary, flattering, friendly, kind, nice
• (stylish, attractive): inelegant, scruffy, shabby
• (observant): unobservant

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

sharp (comparative sharper, superlative sharpest)

1. To a point or edge; piercingly; eagerly; sharply.
   • 1853, Matthew Arnold, Sohrab and Rustum

     The iron plates rang sharp, but turn'd the spear
2. (not comparable) Exactly.

3. (music) In a higher pitch than is correct or desirable.

Synonyms

• (exactly): exactly, on the dot (of time), precisely; see also Thesaurus:exactly

Translations

Noun

sharp (plural sharps)

1. (music) The symbol ?, placed after the name of a note in the key signature or before a note on the staff to indicate that the note is to be played a semitone higher.

2. (music) A note that is played a semitone higher than usual; denoted by the name of the note that is followed by the symbol ?.
3. (music) A note that is sharp in a particular key.

4. (music) The scale having a particular sharp note as its tonic.

5. (usually in the plural) Something that is sharp.
   1. (medicine) A hypodermic syringe.
   2. (medicine, dated) A scalpel or other edged instrument used in surgery.
   3. A sharp tool or weapon.
   • c. 1700 Jeremy Collier, On Duelling

     If butchers had but the manners to go to sharps, gentlemen would be contented with a rubber at cuffs.

6. A dishonest person; a cheater.

   This usage is often classified as variant spelling of shark, and unrelated to the 'pointed' or 'cutting' meanings of sharp.

7. Part of a stream where the water runs very rapidly.
   • 1858, Charles Kingsley, "Chalk Stream Studies", in Fraser's Magazine

     here are good fish to be picked out of sharps and stop-holes into the water-tables

8. A sewing needle with a very slender point, more pointed than a blunt or a between.
9. (in the plural) Fine particles of husk mixed with coarse particle of flour of cereals; middlings.
   • 1954, Barbara Comyns, Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead, Dorothy 2010, p. 21:

     While he worked he talked to his ducks, who were waddling about hopefully, as it was almost time for the red bucket to be filled with sharps and potato-peelings.

10. (slang, dated) An expert.
11. A sharpie (member of Australian gangs of the 1960s and 1970s).

Derived terms

• cardsharp, card sharp
• double sharp

Translations

See also

• (music) accidental, flat, natural
• ?

Verb

sharp (third-person singular simple present sharps, present participle sharping, simple past and past participle sharped)

1. (music) To raise the pitch of a note half a step making a natural note a sharp.

2. To play tricks in bargaining; to act the sharper.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To sharpen.

Translations

References

• sharp at OneLook Dictionary Search
• sharp in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Spahr, harps, shrap

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?k?sp??s/ IPA^(key): /?k.?sp??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Etymology 1

From French exprès, from Latin expressus, past participle of exprimere (see Etymology 2, below).

Adjective

express (comparative more express, superlative most express)

1. (not comparable) Moving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops.
2. (comparable) Specific or precise; directly and distinctly stated; not merely implied.

   I gave him express instructions not to begin until I arrived, but he ignored me.

   This book cannot be copied without the express permission of the publisher.

3. Truly depicted; exactly resembling.

   In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenance.
4. (postpositive, retail) Providing a more limited but presumably faster service than a full or complete dealer of the same kind or type.

   The Pizza Hut inside Target isn't a full one: it's a Pizza Hut Express.

   Some Wal-Mart stores will include a McDonald's Express.

   The mall's selection of cell phone carriers includes a full AT&T store and a T-Mobile express.

Synonyms

• (of a train): fast, crack
• (directly and distinctly stated; not merely implied): explicit, plain; see also Thesaurus:explicit

Antonyms

• (directly and distinctly stated; not merely implied): implied

Translations

Noun

express (plural expresses)

1. A mode of transportation, often a train, that travels quickly or directly.
2. A service that allows mail or money to be sent rapidly from one destination to another.
3. An express rifle.
   • 1885, H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines

     "Give me my express," I said, laying down the Winchester, and he handed it to me cocked.

4. (obsolete) A clear image or representation; an expression; a plain declaration.
   • a. 1667, Jeremy Taylor, Clerus Domini, or, A discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness, and separation of the office ministerial together with the nature and manner of its power and operation

     the only remanent express of Christ's sacrifice on earth

5. A messenger sent on a special errand; a courier.
6. An express office.
   • 1873, Edward Everett Hale, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

     She charged him […] to ask at the express if anything came up from town.

7. That which is sent by an express messenger or message.

Synonyms

• (of a train): fast train

Antonyms

• (of a train): local, stopper

Translations

Etymology 2

From Old French espresser, expresser, from frequentative form of Latin exprimere.

Verb

express (third-person singular simple present expresses, present participle expressing, simple past and past participle expressed)

2. (transitive) To convey or communicate; to make known or explicit.

3. (transitive) To press, squeeze out (especially said of milk).
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, chapter 13

     The people of his island of Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl [...].

   • 2018, Kelsey Munroe, The Guardian, 15 March:

     They don’t have teats, so the mothers express their milk onto their bellies for their young to feed.

4. (biochemistry) To translate messenger RNA into protein.
5. (biochemistry) To transcribe deoxyribonucleic acid into messenger RNA.
   • 2015, Ferris Jabr, How Humans Ended Up With Freakishly Huge Brains, Wired:

     When a cell “expresses” a gene, it translates the DNA first into a signature messenger RNA (mRNA) sequence and subsequently into a chain of amino acids that forms a protein.

Synonyms

• outspeak, utter

Derived terms

• expressed
• expressedly
• express oneself

Related terms

• expressible
• expressibly
• expression
• expressive
• expressively
• expressly

Translations

Noun

express (plural expresses)

1. (obsolete) The action of conveying some idea using words or actions; communication, expression.
   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.20:

     Whereby they discoursed in silence, and were intuitively understood from the theory of their expresses.

2. (obsolete) A specific statement or instruction.
   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II.5:

     This Gentleman [...] caused a man to go down no less than a hundred fathom, with express to take notice whether it were hard or soft in the place where it groweth.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English express, from Old French expres, from Latin expressus

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k.sp??s/
• Homophone: expresse

Adjective

express (invariable)

1. express, rapide

Derived terms

Noun

express m (plural express)

1. express train or service