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Incisive   /ɪnsˈaɪsɪv/   Listen
adjective
Incisive  adj.  
1.
Having the quality of incising, cutting, or penetrating, as with a sharp instrument; cutting; hence, Sharp; acute; sarcastic; biting; trenchant. "An incisive, high voice." "And her incisive smile accrediting That treason of false witness in my blush."
2.
(Anat.) Of or pertaining to the incisors; incisor; as, the incisive bones, the premaxillaries.
3.
Clearly and succinctly stated, with penetrating insight into the issue at hand; as, an incisive comment.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Incisive" Quotes from Famous Books



... his genial sociability, graced by, and gracing, the self-supporting habit of his soul; his intrepidity of intellect, matched by a beautiful boldness and openness in speech; the absence, too, from works so incisive, of a single trace of truculence: all this will now be remembered; and those are unamiable persons, in whom the remembrance does not breed a desire to believe him as great in thought as he was brave, as prosperous in labor as ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 63, January, 1863 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... in two languages—the original Arabic on one page, and, facing it, the translation in very old French. The author, born A.D. 1058, described himself as "a poor student striving to discern the truth of things"—and his work was a serious, incisive, patiently exhaustive inquiry into the workings of nature, the capabilities of human intelligence, and the deceptive results of human reason. Reading it, Alwyn was astonished to find that nearly all the ethical propositions offered for the ...
— Ardath - The Story of a Dead Self • Marie Corelli

... appear to heed the foreman's scoffing. Instead, he began in a low incisive voice the narration of his experiences of the previous night, beginning with the bear hunt and ending with his finding his way out ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in Montana • Frank Gee Patchin

... of this volume will give the reader a more correct idea of the character discussed than he would probably get from reading their biographies. The lecture is analytical, penetrative, terse, incisive, and candid. The book is worth its price, and will ...
— India: What can it teach us? - A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of Cambridge • F. Max Mueller

... Arnold has occupied a high place among the foremost prose writers of the time. His style is in marked contrast to the dithyrambic eloquence of Carlyle, or to Ruskin's pure and radiant coloring. It is a quiet style, restrained, clear, discriminating, incisive, with little glow of ardor or passion. Notwithstanding its scrupulous assumption of urbanity, it is often a merciless style, indescribably irritating to an opponent by its undercurrent of sarcastic humor, and its ...
— Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems • Matthew Arnold


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