razor-sharp

razor-sharp

1. Literally, very sharp, like a razor. Stand back, that tool is razor-sharp! Please be careful cutting those vegetables with such a razor-sharp knife.
2. Particularly clear, perceptive, and/or intelligent. Victoria may seem quiet, but she always has these razor-sharp insights on the texts we're reading. The think tank is known for razor-sharp analysis of world affairs. A lot of people are funny, but she has razor-sharp wit.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • (as) sharp as a razor
  • razor
  • sharp as a razor
  • cut (someone or something) to (someone or something)
  • cut to
  • sharp
  • sharp as a tack
  • (as) sharp as a tack
  • look sharp
  • the sharp end
References in periodicals archive
They should be familiar with razor-sharp, tight marking near the goal.
Then the starkly penetrating, unflinching eyes of the Dogon people stare at us from razor-sharp, black-and-white prints, as they must have gazed at Agnes Pataux, the trusted white storyteller with the camera.
At the New Museum, after passing a framed grid of the scribbled-out, Twomblyesque index cards that Waters uses to organize his daily life (308 Days, 2003) as well as a photograph of the returned mail he'd addressed to various deceased, jailed, or relocated celebrities (Return to Sender, 2003)--this kind of anecdotal, autobiographical riff on the readymade also played a large part in the exhibition--the viewer suddenly collided with razor-sharp little blockbusters Grace Kelly's Elbows, 1998, and Lana Backwards, 1994.
Like Michael Cunningham's The Hours, which captured the inner life of Virginia Woolf, Toibin's book brilliantly delves into the mind of James, the razor-sharp observer of the treachery beneath the elegance of the Gilded Age.
The new Black Talon folding knife from Cold Steel is designed to rip, cut or slash through any material vulnerable to a razor-sharp edge.
Linda Gregorson's "Ben Jonson and the Loathed Word" is razor-sharp in its criticisms of the Jonsonian plain style.
The main ingredient, the blue agave, is hacked from the earth with a cua, a pole with a razor-sharp circular blade that looks more like a medieval weapon than a fainting tool.
Scott Reeds takes his inspiration from the distinguished lineage of James Ensor and Richard Serra in this new series, celebrating the razor-sharp technique to be mastered in fine printmaking, as well as pinpointing the integrity of steel as material.
Daddy Freddy lays some dancehall chants over a heavy, razor-sharp Bug electro cut with ve rsions to spare.
The S-VHS ET function ensures 400 lines of razor-sharp resolution on a standard VHS videocassette tape.
Babs jumps in, grabs an 8-foot, 250-pound gator (who has, oh, 82 razor-sharp teeth) by the tail and pulls him onto the sand.
These punches feature a seamless, stainless steel, razor-sharp cutting edge for a clean, precise specimen as well as ribbed handle for maximum control.
Alas, some of the latter episodes have shown the ravages of Father Time, and one wonders how much longer the show can garner viewers without the razor-sharp wit of earlier instalments.
As for the album-closing epic Sugar Baby, every tender moment of recollection has a razor-sharp underbelly.
Reporters from the Sunday People newspaper claim they carried two hi-tech knives and a razor-sharp cleaver on board British Airways flights from London-Heathrow and Manchester.