ACUTE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Acute

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/əkjˈut/ Listen

adjective

Acute adj.

Sharp at the end; ending in a sharp point; pointed; opposed to blunt or obtuse; as, an acute angle; an acute leaf.

Having nice discernment; perceiving or using minute distinctions; penetrating; clever; shrewd; opposed to dull or stupid; as, an acute observer; acute remarks, or reasoning.

Having nice or quick sensibility; susceptible to slight impressions; acting keenly on the senses; sharp; keen; intense; as, a man of acute eyesight, hearing, or feeling; acute pain or pleasure.

High, or shrill, in respect to some other sound; opposed to grave or low; as, an acute tone or accent.

(Med.) Attended with symptoms of some degree of severity, and coming speedily to a crisis; opposed to chronic; as, an acute disease.

Acute angle (Geom.), an angle less than a right angle.

Synonyms: Subtile; ingenious; sharp; keen; penetrating; sagacious; sharp-witted; shrewd; discerning; discriminating. See Subtile.

verb

Acute v. t. To give an acute sound to; as, he acutes his rising inflection too much. (R.)

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Etymology of 'Acute'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Acute" Quotes from Famous Books

... which are sometimes incompatible with those of a prince, were exercised by Julian, not only as a duty, but as an amusement; and although he might have trusted the integrity and discernment of his Praetorian praefects, he often placed himself by their side on the seat of judgment. The acute penetration of his mind was agreeably occupied in detecting and defeating the chicanery of the advocates, who labored to disguise the truths of facts, and to pervert the sense of the laws. He sometimes forgot the gravity of his station, asked indiscreet ...

— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon

... heard you yelp with acute pain (it's that poor left ear) the while, with incredible self-command, you preserve a rigid immobility for fear of overturning the little two-legged creature. She has never seen your resigned smile when the little two-legged ...

— A Personal Record • Joseph Conrad

... be." I was about to add that Goodrich was a fool to permit any one to go to such a man as Scarborough with such a proposition; but I bethought me of Burbank's acute moral sensitiveness and how it would be rasped by the implication of his opponent's moral superiority. "We're past the last danger, James. That's all. Sleep sound. ...

— The Plum Tree • David Graham Phillips

... events that not only helped to hush matters up, but gave the world a plausible reason why the ceremony did not come off as soon as the groom was convalescent from what was reported in the papers to be an attack of acute indigestion, easily accounted for by the round of banquets and entertainments which ...

— Lo, Michael! • Grace Livingston Hill

... the horizontal round bars, E and F, under an acute (more or less) angle, d, to the side frame of a rock drill carriage, or to the alignment of the tunnel, substantially as and ...

— Scientific American, Vol. 17, No. 26 December 28, 1867 • Various

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