Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Extremely hungry, ravenous: The primary meaning describes a state of intense hunger, often to the point of being voracious or famished.
   • (Archaic, of an edge or point) Set at a sharp angle: This older, less common usage refers to something being positioned or ground to a keen edge or acute point.

Usage and Examples

• Adjective (Extremely hungry):
  • After the long hike, we were all sharp-set and devoured our dinner.
  • The sharp-set wolves prowled the edge of the forest.
• Adjective (Archaic - Set at a sharp angle):
  • The mason used a sharp-set chisel for the fine detail work. (This usage is now rare.)

Advanced Usage and Nuances

• "Sharp-set" is a somewhat literary or formal synonym for "very hungry." It often implies a hunger that is keen, urgent, or animalistic.
• It can be used figuratively to describe an intense desire or craving for something non-physical, though this is less common.
  • He was sharp-set for knowledge, reading every book he could find.

Variants and Related Words

• Sharpen (verb): To make or become sharp.
• Sharp (adjective): Having a keen edge or point; acute.
• Sharpness (noun): The quality of being sharp.

Synonyms

• Ravenous: Extremely hungry; voracious.
• Famished: Very hungry; starving.
• Starving: Suffering or dying from hunger.
• Esurient (literary): Hungry or greedy.
• Voracious: Wanting or consuming great quantities of food.

Antonyms

• Full: Having eaten enough.
• Satiated: Satisfied, especially in appetite or desire.
• Replete: Filled or well-supplied.

Idioms and Phrases

• Sharp-set as a hawk: An idiom emphasizing extreme, predatory hunger.
  • The stranded sailors were sharp-set as hawks by the time rescue arrived.

Adjective

1. extremely hungry
   • they were tired and famished for food and sleep
   • a ravenous boy
   • the family was starved and ragged
   • fell into the esurient embrance of a predatory enemy