sharpen up

phrasal verb

sharpened up; sharpening up; sharpens up

: to become better, smarter, more skillful, etc.

You'd better sharpen up if you want to keep your job.

: to improve (something)

I took a course to sharpen up my computer skills.

Examples of sharpen up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Perhaps extending the Division Series to a best-of-seven rather than a best-of-five would be a help, giving division winners more time to sharpen up. —

Barry M. Bloom, Sportico.com, 10 Oct. 2024 The folky-pop LP is a proper showcase of Abrams’ songwriting, sharpening up some of the clichés and adolescent metaphors from her debut. —

Brittany Spanos, Rolling Stone, 24 June 2024 His Grassroots Spirit Remains Many Spanish and South American players in La Liga would have sharpened up by playing futsal at a young age. —

Henry Flynn, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2023 Hard cornering is flattened out by an active anti-roll system, while four-wheel steering sharpens up handling, as do the industry’s largest carbon-ceramic brakes. —

Jeremy Taylor, Robb Report, 11 June 2023 The administration has made a number of moves to sharpen up border enforcement ahead of the order’s end. —

Adam Shaw, Fox News, 10 May 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sharpen up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.