different between sharpener vs sharpen

English

Etymology

sharpen +? -er

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????(?)p?n?(?)/

Noun

sharpener (plural sharpeners)

1. A device for making things sharp.

   There was a pencil sharpener at the front of the classroom.

2. (figuratively) That which makes something sharp.
   • 1795, Hannah More, The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain

     “Sir,” said the shepherd, “poverty is a great sharpener of the wits. […]

   • 1872, Chambers's miscellany of instructive & entertaining tracts

     The snuff-box, knife, and chicken-bones were again in requisition, and a pen was successfully formed. The ink, or at least its substitute, was rather more difficult, but necessity is always a sharpener of intellect, and even this was accomplished.

3. (informal) An alcoholic drink taken at the start of the day, or just before a meal.

Related terms

• sharp
• pencil sharpener

Translations

Anagrams

• resharpen

English

Etymology

From Middle English scharpenen, scharpnen, equivalent to sharp +? -en.

Pronunciation

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

Verb

sharpen (third-person singular simple present sharpens, present participle sharpening, simple past and past participle sharpened)

1. (transitive, sometimes figuratively) To make sharp.
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

     He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill.
2. (intransitive) To become sharp.

Synonyms

• hone (figurative sense)
• whet

Antonyms

• blunt
• blur

Derived terms

• sharpener

Translations

Anagrams

• Hapners, pherans