sharply, adv.
(ˈʃɑːplɪ)
[f. sharp a. + -ly2.]
In a sharp manner.
1. Severely, sternly, harshly. a. Of punishment, discipline, etc. Now rare.
| c 900 Bede Glosses in O.E. Texts 181/47 Acerbatim, scearplice. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 67 In tokene þat he scharpliest schal ponysche hem þat don symonye. 1415 Hoccleve To Sir J. Oldcastle 278 Yee heretikes..I doute it nat, your wages shal be payed sharply, but yee correct your trespas. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 82 b, The body must be entreated sharpely, that it waxe not wanton and wylde. 1557 N. T. (Genev.) Matt. xxii. 6 And the remnant toke his seruantes, and intreated them sharpely. 1677 J. Leverett in Jrnl. Friends' Hist. Soc. (1912) July 134 [The Lord] was pleased to lay his hand so sharply upon me by fits of the stone in a time of great business. |
b. Of speech, rebuke, command: Sternly, severely, harshly, peremptorily; in cutting terms; in stern or angry tones.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 3450 When þou spekes sharppely til þe pure, Þat sum gode askes at þi dore. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶583 Whan a man is sharply amonested in his shrift to leve his sinne. c 1450 in Aungier Syon (1840) 269 Repreve scharply. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 971 The king wrote sharpely to him to accomplish y{supt} which appertayned to his duety. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ i. iv. §4. 61 Though he be sharply censured by Strabo. 1829 Scott Anne of G. xxv, ‘By Saint George, never!’ answered the Duke, sharply and shortly. 1870 R. Broughton Red as Rose I. 169 ‘He hates the game’, replies Miss Blessington, rather sharplier than is her wont. |
2. With sharp or painful effect; keenly, smartly.
| a 1023 Wulfstan Hom. xxix. (1883) 141 Se deofol..cwæð..‘stingað hine scearplice on þone muð’. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) ii. 6 It was of iunkes of the see, þat ware whyte and prikked scharpely as thornes. c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 930 Sa woundir scharply he schair, The berne that the brand bair. 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. v. iv. 2162, I wish thee store of gall, Sharpely to wound the guilty world withall. 1724 Lond. Gaz. No. 6240/5 It froze..sharply. 1831 Scott Ct. Rob. xx, Her own well aimed, but feeble shaft, wounded him [the boar] sharply. 1851 Gladstone in Lathbury Corr. Ch. & Relig. (1910) I. 358 Such griefs..must be sacred to me, even did they not touch me sharply with a reflected sorrow. 1852 Thackeray Esmond ii. i, A fever..which attacked him that night pretty sharply. 1865 Kingsley Herew. ii, An arrow struck him sharply in the back. |
3. † a. With intellectual acuteness; acutely, sagaciously, shrewdly.
Obs.| c 897 ælfred Gregory's Past. C. xi. 68 Ða þe meahton smealice & scearplice mid hiera ondᵹiete ryht ᵹesion. 1382 Wyclif Prol. 58 Men miȝten expoune..the bible in English,..myche sharpliere and groundliere than manie late postillatouris. c 1450 Holland Howlat 268 Mony allegiance leile, in leid nocht to layne it, Off Arestotill and ald men, scharplie thai schewe. 1621 S. Ward Happiness of Practice (1627) 10 His scope sure was not to make trial of the wits of men, who could sharpliest conceiue. 1699 Bentley Phalaris 497 Who can deny now, but this is sharply observ'd? |
b. Attentively, with penetration and keen observation; vigilantly, closely.
| c 1055 Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia VIII. 309, & hawa swyðe scearplice hwær sy .xii. kl' aprelis. a 1340 Hampole Psalter lxiii. 6 Þe sharpliere þat þai thynke, þe mare þai faile fra sothfastnes. c 1420 Wars Alex. (prose) (E.E.T.S.) 40 Alexander..biheld þe Phisician in þe vesage riȝte scharpely. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 32 æneas..thee towne top sharplye beholding. 1666 Pepys Diary 16 Dec., This Committee of Accounts will enquire sharply into our office. 1869 H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 191 A salutary hint as to..the benefit of being tolerably sharply on the look out. 1879 B. Taylor Germ. Lit. 144 Their business was to listen sharply. |
4. a. Briskly, swiftly, quickly.
| a 1000 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 226/33 Efficaciter, i. uelociter, caflice, scearplice. 1338 R. Brunne Chron. (1725) 244 To Wales he went his way fulle scharply, & fulle brim. c 1400 Brut (1906) 283 Þe Scottis..come fast and sharpely aȝeynes evesong tyme. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 426 The Englishe men shot so closely and so sharpely together, that the Flemynges and footemen began to flie. 1688 Clayton in Phil. Trans. XVIII. 121 They Ride pretty sharply. 1741 Short Ibid. XLI. 628 It went all over this Country from North to South, pretty sharply, but nothing near so quick as a Glade of Lightning. 1829 Scott Anne of G. xix, [He] drew in his head, and shut the window sharply against the guest. 1859 Tennyson Marr. Geraint 196 Geraint..Made sharply to the dwarf, and ask'd it of him. 1912 Times 19 Dec. 19/6 Prices soon recovered and advanced sharply in the afternoon. |
b. Of conflict or attack: Eagerly, vigorously.
| c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 724 Al so scharply þes men of mayn þan smyte to-gadre aȝy. 1535 Coverdale Lam. iii. 52 Myne enemies hunted me out sharpely like a byrde. 1678 Wanley Wond. Lit. World v. ii. §82. 478/2 Solyman..sharply besieged and assaulted Vienna. 1737 Whiston Josephus, Antiq. xiv. xv. §12 He pursued them sharply, and killed them. |
c. Abruptly.
| 1828 Scott F.M. Perth viii, Some of them [sc. the blows] lighted upon Jezabel, who, turning sharply round, laid her rider upon the moor. 1889 Gunter That Frenchman i. 9 ‘Which, by the by, isn't his right name’, remarks de Verney, sharply closing his speech. |
5. With a sharp edge or point; at or with an acute angle.
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 1723 He took an arowe ful sharply whet. 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 47 b, It is like that figure which the Geometricians call Pyramis, we may say sharpely topped. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 543 Leaves egg⁓shaped, streaked, sharply toothed. 1827 Faraday Chem. Manip. xvi. (1842) 424 It is to be bent, not sharply, but obtusely and roundly. 1860 L. Reeve Elem. Conchol. I. 149 Shell.., apex rather sharply acuminated. |
6. With a sharp sound.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 29 Oon of þe goldene calues..lowede ful scharpliche. 1808 Scott Marm. vi. xxii, Deep need that day that every string By wet unharmed should sharply ring. 1825 ― Talism. v, A shrill whistle..was heard to ring sharply through the vaulted chapel. |
7. Definitely, distinctly.
| 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. II. 156 In no system is the distinction between the individual and God..more sharply drawn than in that of Spinoza. 1874 H. H. Cole Catal. Ind. Art S. Kens. Mus. 127 Sharply and well carved decoration. 1893 Liddon Life Pusey I. x. 198 This election [Peel v. Inglis] divided men sharply throughout Oxford. 1907 J. A. Hodges Elem. Photogr. (ed. 6) 123 The image having been sharply focussed. |
8. Smartly, fashionably.
| 1965 V. Canning Whip Hand ii. 15, I was sharply dressed for the part, young man on holiday, well-heeled. 1981 P. Inchbald Tondo for Short vii. 73 He was dressed as sharply as he could manage. |
9. Comb. With
pples., forming
adjs., as
sharply-bitted,
sharply-chiselled,
sharply-defined,
sharply-discerning,
sharply-focussed;
† sharply-conceived, having a keen, ready wit.
| 1844 H. G. Robinson Odes of Horace i. viii, Why now no more..Does he..with the *sharply bitted rein His Gallic courser's mouth restrain? |
| 1854 tr. Hettner's Athens, etc. 54 These bold, *sharply-chiselled, expressive faces. |
| 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 56 The Italian is more courteous... *Sharply conceived, of fresh memory. |
| 1865 Visct. Milton & W. B. Cheadle N.-W. Passage by Land viii. (1867) 116 The clear, *sharply-defined track of the active mink. 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 601 A sharply-defined ulcer. |
| 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. ii. i, A quick, choleric, *sharply discerning, stubbornly endeavouring man. |
| 1892 Photogr. Ann. II. 265 A *sharply focussed representation of a distant object. |