sharping

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of sharp.

   The violinist was sharping slightly on the long notes, so the conductor stopped the rehearsal.

   The con artist made his money by sharping unwary travelers at cards.

   Note

   One spelling serves three different verbs of sharp. In music it means raising a note half a step. At the card table it means cheating, acting the sharper. On a whetstone it means sharpening, a use now obsolete, so sharpening is the safe choice for blades today. The gerund has also become nouns of its own: the musician's pitch term and the swindler's trade.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The raising of a note's pitch by half a step.

   The conductor objected to the gradual sharping in the violin section.

   A touch of deliberate sharping gave the phrase a tense, expectant color.

   Oppositeflattening

   Note

   A music term that covers both the page and the performance. On the page, a sharp raises a note by a semitone, the same interval as a half step. In performance, the word names any upward push in pitch, whether chosen for color or slipped into by accident. Context tells a rehearsal complaint from an expressive choice, so name which you mean when it matters.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   Fraud or trickery; the cheating practiced by a swindler.

   He kept himself afloat through years of sharping at the gaming houses.

   The magistrate had heard of their sharping long before the pair were arrested.

   Similarcheating, swindling, fraud, trickery

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