sharpener

See also: Sharpener

English

Etymology

sharpen + -er

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.
    • 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.

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