鋭い牙が meaning in human nature > **** It was a sentence in a light novel ( **** ) that I've been reading, and I have an impression that it should be some kind of idiomatic words. > **** (from **Jisho.org** ) : perceptive; keen; quick (mind); astute; shrewd; discerning. I was wondering what the true meaning of **** ( **sharp fang** ) in human character. Can it be translated as **sense of perception**? Sharp also has a meaning of fierce, so I was thinking an option like **fierce personality**. Thank you in advance for your kind guidance.

For reference to other readers, here's the Jisho.org entry for .

I think you're overthinking this.

As seen in the entry, the topmost sense and core meaning of is simply "sharp", not "perceptive". It _can_ be used to mean "perceptive", but that's the same as saying that "someone is **sharp** " in English can mean that they're quick on the uptake, they're smart, they're shrewd.

In the specific case of your sample text, can really only mean "sharp fangs". And, like in English, when we refer to someone having "sharp fangs", we don't (usually) mean that they literally have sharp fangs -- instead, this expression is used figuratively to mean that someone can be vicious.

> ****
> "Even though they look calm, that doesn't change the fact that they've got **sharp fangs**."
> → Even though they look calm, they **can be vicious**.