sharpen up

phrasal verb

sharpened up; sharpening up; sharpens up

1

: to become better, smarter, more skillful, etc.

You'd better sharpen up if you want to keep your job.

2

: to improve (something)

I took a course to sharpen up my computer skills.

Examples of sharpen up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Now the company is looking to sharpen up those tools with a new evolution and printing currently crowdfunding. —Rob Wieland, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025

So just sharpening up a couple things here and there and try to have some fun. —Ryan Morik, FOXNews.com, 3 July 2025

The Colombian’s work with the assistant, John Heitinga, who has focused on timing runs into the box more effectively and sharpening up his shooting, has helped. —Gregg Evans, New York Times, 17 May 2025

Advice like meditating daily for an hour or sharpening up our golf game for networking purposes is useless to women because none of us have time for that. —Cherie Kloss, Forbes, 18 Mar. 2025

Special teams will need to sharpen up in Buffalo, as the Sabres have won five of their past six games and scored 30 goals in the process, leaving little margin for error. —Andrew Knoll, Orange County Register, 24 Feb. 2025

This bestselling option delivers 15 minutes of continuous steam to relax wrinkles and sharpen up pleats. —Ashley Davis, WWD, 2 Dec. 2024

Rhymes for sharpen up

• buttercup
• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup