Word.ws English Dictionary

sharpish

sharpish adjective: somewhat sharp (sudden, abrupt).

Adjective

sharpish (not comparable)

  1. (informal) Somewhat sharp (sudden, abrupt).
    • The car made a sharpish turn.
    • On straights speed would quicken to what was apparently the maximum allowed on this stretch, 140 k.p.h., or 87.5 m.p.h., and then one would see the track disappearing ahead round a sharpish curve, for there are some of 35 and 40 chains' radius on this side of the summit as well.1960 March, G. Freeman Allen, “Europe's most luxurious express - the "Settebello"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 144
  2. (informal) Somewhat sharp; not blunt.
    • a sharpish knife

Adverb

sharpish (not comparable)

  1. (informal) Rapidly, soon.
    • You'd better mend your ways sharpish!
    • Packed my valise sharpish, afraid the ship might sail back to England with me still aboard; or rather, afraid of my letting this happen.2004, David Mitchell, “Letters From Zedelghem”, in Cloud Atlas, →ISBN, page 47

Origin of sharpish

From sharp + -ish.

Words formed from sharpish

Questions about sharpish

What does sharpish mean?
Sharpish means somewhat sharp (sudden, abrupt).
What part of speech is sharpish?
Sharpish can be an adjective or an adverb.

Words near sharpish in the dictionary

  1. sharpie
  2. Sharpiegate
  3. sharpies
  4. sharping
  5. sharpings
  6. sharpish
  7. sharpishly
  8. sharpite
  9. Sharples
  10. Sharpless
  11. Sharpley

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sharpish (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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