different between sharply vs claw

English

Etymology

From Middle English sharply, scharply, from Old English s?earpl??e (“sharply, smartly”), equivalent to sharp +? -ly.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /???pli/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???pli/

Adverb

sharply (comparative sharplier or more sharply, superlative sharpliest or most sharply)

1. In a sharp manner.
2. (to describe breathing) Suddenly and intensely like a gasp, but typically as the result of an emotional reaction.
3. In an intellectually alert and penetrating manner.
4. Severely.
   • 2013 June 18, Simon Romero, "Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders," New York Times (retrieved 21 June 2013):

     The economy has slowed to a pale shadow of its growth in recent years; inflation is high, the currency is declining sharply against the dollar — but the expectations of Brazilians have rarely been higher, feeding broad intolerance with corruption, bad schools and other government failings.

5. Of speech, delivered in a stern or harsh tone.

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kl??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kl?/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /kl?/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

From Middle English clawe, from Old English clawu, from Proto-Germanic *klaw?. Compare West Frisian klau, Dutch klauw, German Klaue, Danish klo, Norwegian klo, and Swedish klo.

Noun

claw (plural claws)

1. A curved, pointed horny nail on each digit of the foot of a mammal, reptile, or bird.
2. A foot equipped with such.
3. The pincer (chela) of a crustacean or other arthropod.
4. A mechanical device resembling a claw, used for gripping or lifting.
5. (botany) A slender appendage or process, formed like a claw, such as the base of petals of the pink.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gray to this entry?)

6. (juggling) The act of catching a ball overhand.

Derived terms

• claw hammer
• declaw
• get one's claws into
• tiger's claw

Translations

Further reading

• claw on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English clawen, from Old English clawan, cl?wan, *cl?n, clawian, from Proto-Germanic *klawjan?.

Verb

claw (third-person singular simple present claws, present participle clawing, simple past and past participle clawed)

1. To scratch or to tear at.

   • Using her hands like windshield wipers, she tried to flick snow away from her mouth. When she clawed at her chest and neck, the crumbs maddeningly slid back onto her face. She grew claustrophobic.

2. To use the claws to seize, to grip.
3. To use the claws to climb.
4. (juggling) To perform a claw catch.
5. To move with one's fingertips.
6. (obsolete) To relieve uneasy feeling, such as an itch, by scratching; hence, to humor or flatter, to court someone.
   • 1599, Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare, Act 1 Scene 3

     I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad when I have cause, and smile at no man's jests; eat when I have stomach, and wait for no man's leisure; sleep when I am drowsy, and tend on no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour.

   • 1603, Philemon Holland (translator), The Philosophie, commonly called, the Morals (originally by Plutarch)

     Rich men they claw, sooth up and flatter: the poore they contemne and despise

7. (obsolete) To rail at; to scold.

   • In the aforesaid preamble, the king fairly claweth the great monasteries, wherein, saith he, religion, thanks be to God, is right well kept and observed; though he claweth them soon after in another acceptation.

8. (figuratively, transitive, dated) To flatter; to fawn on (a person).

Translations

Derived terms

• claw me, claw thee

Anagrams

• cawl

Middle English

Noun

claw

1. Alternative form of clawe