Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. cunning, on the lookout for oneself.

1680		T. Betterton Match in Newgate IV i: Thou’rt plaguie sharp.
1688		T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia III i: They are all deep, they are very deep and sharp, sharp as needles, adad.
1699		N. Ward London Spy V 119: They are a Pack of the sharpest Knaves about London.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 64: By that Time he’ll have learnt to be as sharp as themselves.
1728		Vanbrugh & Cibber Provoked Husband II i: This is a sharp Tawn, we mun look about us here, John [...] see that no Body runs away with them before they get to the Stables.
1755		The Tricks of the Town Laid Open (4 edn) 39: Two or three of the sharpest of the Gang.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: sharp subtle, acute, quick witted.
1797		‘T.B. Junr.’ Pettyfogger Dramatized II iii: Dam’me, they know nothing of the practice, and are above doing a sharp thing.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1817		M. Edgeworth Love and Law I i: But, Phil, was not there something of this man’s being dismissed the courts for too sharp practice?
1821		W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Wife (1868) 335/2: The Doctor might have found disgrace / Among the sharp set jockey race.
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 382: Why, one needs be sharp in this town, my dear [...] and that’s the truth.
1841		Punch 31 July I 26: There is a man in Quamphegan so tarnation sharp that he cuts his creditors whenever he meets them.
1859		E. Eden Semi-Detached House (1979) 171: A sharp fellow, and he seems to know what he is about [...] for I never could catch his eye, and I never feel sure of a man who will not look me in the face.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 255/2: The butchers, if the ‘finder’ be detected, ‘won’t,’ I was told by a sharp youth [...] ‘go bothering themselves to a beak, but gives you a scruff of the neck and a kick and lets you go’.
1878		‘’Arry on Himself’ Punch 21 Dec. in P. Marks (2006) 6: But you’ll only queer flats in that fashion, the sharp sort is bound to be fly.
1893–4		H. Lawson ‘Stiffner and Jim’ in Roderick (1972) 124: He was meaner than a gold-field Chinaman, and sharper than a sewer rat.
1894		A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 130: All you City lawyers an’ clurks are pretty bleed’n’ sharp, I know, but you ain’t done me, an’ I don’t bear no malice.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 234: Doctor knew what lawyers were – the whole breed of ’em! Sharp as needles.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 87: She told me she had to be cautious with Yanks, because they were so sharp that they would sell her swag, and then steal it from her.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 8: Many commercial gentlemen are called ‘crooks’ until it is discovered that they are merely sharp business men.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 7: [They] felt they were about as sharp as the next pair of hustlers.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 24: Most of the sharp boys are against him.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 46: I’m dead sharp, see? But the law’s dead agin me, see?
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 44: He was sharp enough, burt scrupulously fair.
1990		in D. Campbell That Was Business, This Is Personal 14: We stood around looking sharp and talking out of the side of our mouths.
2001		Indep. Rev. 20 Apr. 7: What we need to do with you is get you looking sharper, meaner, up on your toes, out there the second a billy walks on to this forecourt.

2. intelligent, perceptive.

1714		T. Lucas Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 217: Being a great gamester, and most an end on the losing side, by playing with those who were sharper than himself.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Sharp, subtle, acute, quick witted.
c.1790		‘The Man of Fashion’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost 5: All you that are counted witty with spirits alamode, Repair to Dublin City [...] For to rabble and to rant to swagger and to cant, / To look sharp on every occasion.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1837		A. Greene Glance at N.Y. II v: However sharp a stranger to New-York may be, he’ll find plenty of folks ready and willing to teach him.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair I 204: She was a sharp one, a dangerous one.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 405/2: The police is too sharp for us in London.
1873		W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 370: You have some sharpness, if you are an American.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 204: If he didn’t know us there was no fear of any one else being that sharp to do it.
1896		M. Williams Round London 131: He’s as sharp as they make ’em.
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 147: It was Common Talk that the Boy was Sharp as a Tack.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 325: I know the fellow and he’s as sharp as they make ’em.
1920		‘Sapper’ Bulldog Drummond 120: Your worry is that you’re too quick on the uptake. Your brain is too sharp.
1938		F. Durbridge Send for Paul Temple (1992) 41: Blimey, ’e was sharp all right. This place is a proper white elephant.
1944		R.L. Bellem ‘Killer’s Cure’ Hollywood Detective Mar. 🌐 Brett was [...] as sharp as a tack where brains were concerned.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 24: He was sharp, young and ready in those days.
1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 51: He wasn’t a square, but he wasn’t sharp neither.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 167: I’ll get me some sharp chick.
1975		D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 56: We got some fuckin’ sharp dudes out there.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 88: Easy, man, Luis is a sharp kid.
1992		V. Headley Yardie 10: There was much money to be made here from someone as sharp as he was.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 160: He’s very sharp, this kid.
2009		J. Joso Soothing Music for Stray Cats 59: Sharp, Ron, very sharp, ‘Nothing gets past you, eh?’.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 4: She’s a bright cookie [...] sharp as a tack.

3. of a woman, attractive.

1913		H. Lawson ‘His Unconquerable Soul’ in Roderick (1972) 814: Half-furtive glimpses of sharp youngish women [...] are caught mornings and afternoons.
1938		P. Grey ‘’Twixt Night ’n’ Dawn’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 24 Sept. 10/4: [The] little comedy club where the cats and sharp chicks pitch their balls and in no mean hashion.
1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 109: His beautiful little sharp chick Louanne.
1953		‘Curt Cannon’ ‘Now Die In It’ in I Like ’Em Tough (1958) 52: She’s real sharp.
1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 92: And then you would see a sharp piece of skin come up the escalator.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 23: We brought in the bread, drank J & B, had the sharp broads.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 191: She got a sharp body.
2004		C. Hiaasen Skinny Dip 204: She was fun and good-looking and sharp.

4. fashionable, good, admirable.

1941		F. Swados House of Fury (1959) 117: She was workin’ as a sud-buster an’ give him ten dollars toward one a them sharp green suits with broad pointy shoulders an’ a narrow waist.
1953		W. Fisher Waiters 163: Asher saw that beneath her ‘sharp’ green hat her eyes were smouldering.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 24: Vintage Merrydown was the drink of all the sharp ones in Town.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 11: Yasee the grill on the new Pontiac? Man, thats real sharp.
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 138: He turned on his record player, dressed up in his sharpest clothes, and practised dancing.
1988		M. Atwood Cat’s Eye (1989) 209: ‘Don’t turn your collar up like that. It’s cheap.’ ‘It’s not cheap,’ says Cordelia. ‘It’s sharp.’.
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 147: We had the sharpest house in the projects [...] we had the best of everything. Pole lamps and fish tanks and stuff.
2000		Guardian Guide 8–14 Jan. 52: His glowing perma-tan and super-sharp, wide-boy whistles.

5. good (of quality).

1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 246: A hotel room is a pretty sharp indication of the manners of the guests.
1974		(con. late 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 485: Paul had one of the first really sharp Model A hot rods in town.
1994		J. O’Connor Secret World of the Irish Male (1995) 213: I see a banner on the far side of the pitch. tommy coyne, sharper than jimmy hill’s chin.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hot-Prowl Rape-O’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 271: Chez Donna: a sharp chateau off L.A. Country Club.

6. used of a person who dresses well and with style, e.g. sharp dresser.

1928		R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 305: sharp Striking ‘Keen.’ A beautifully dressed woman is ‘sharp out of this world’.
1942		C. Himes ‘Lunching at the Ritzmore’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 16: Strutting Filipinos, the sharp-cat Mexican youths in their ultra drapes.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 93: He’s a real sharp dresser [...] Did you see that brown tweed coat and that black short-brim he wore?
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 88: He was a sharp dresser and he drove a Buick convertible.
1955		Argus (Melbourne) 1 Dec. 3/3: Knives, knuckledusters, and ice-picks are part of a really ‘sharp’ teenager’s dress .
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 29: The barber shop where the sharp cats got their nappy kinks straightened with a mixture of Vaseline and potash lye.
1959		A. Anderson ‘A Sound of Screaming’ in Lover Man 45: He’d fall into town sharper’n a tack / With a brand new suit laid on his back.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 29: The barber shop where the sharp cats got their kinks straightened with a mixture of Vaseline and potash lye.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 205: Of Spanish extraction, Baez was a sharp, if tasteless dresser, whose heavily oiled hair flopped down over his narrow forehead.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 109: I stay sharp while I’m at the pad too.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 31: All Club had to do was stand there looking sharp as a jockey’s prick in his pearlgray threepiece.
2000		Indep. Mag. 19 Feb. 6: I still look in the mirror when I’m dressed ready for the act and think: that looks very sharp.
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) in T. Taylor Top Fellas 16/1: The point was always to look sharp, that’s why people started calling us sharpies.
2022		I. Fitzgerald Dirtbag, Massachusetts 88: The stylish, sharp-dressed one of the group.

7. (S.Afr.) good (of health).

1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 85: Two tits she’s lost already, and a kidney’s coming out next week. The liver’s not too sharp either.
1999		Observer Mag. 30 May 23: ‘Sharp (good) man?’ asked another.

8. (US drugs) intoxicated by a given drug.

1953

Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 314: sharp. To be elated by drugs.

9. (S.Afr.) promiscuous.

1963

L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 113: They [a gang called Americans] derive their name from the fact that they go dressed in the loudest American fashions [...] and are much sought after by the ‘nice-time girls’. Their monopolisation of these ‘sharp’ girls leads to occasional fights with the ‘Berliners’.