sharpen

Object

• pencil: This might be anything, ranging from a mounted needle to a sharpened pencil.
• knife: Marvin Poole uses this system to sharpen dull knives.
• blade: To sharpen the blade, hold the handle in the right hand.
• claw: Everything a cat could want for a day or night spent hiding, sleeping and sharpening those claws.
• spear: A warrior, he throws sharpened spears to cut in deep.
• saw: Saw set, to set teeth when sharpening saws.

Noun phrase with adjective complement

• such: There are many tools you could use for sharpening pastel pencils such as a craft knife, a scalpel, or a Stanley knife.

Modifying Another Word

• freshly: The axeman was present, his ax freshly sharpened.
• continually: Now you continually sharpen and update your professional skills.
• carefully: He gets his name because he has long, carefully sharpened nails that he uses as weapons on anyone who is annoying him.
• certainly: Following a rescue boat, which stops its engine without warning, certainly sharpens the reaction of boat crews.
• really: This is what really sharpened the script I suppose.
• then: Teachers can then sharpen their coaching skills by working with the teams again with no fear of undermining the esteem of their respective schools.

Followed by an intransitive particle

• up: We can help you too sharpen up your image.

Used with why or when

• when: Yet strength must be sustained and sharpened when the enemy changes.

Preposition: of

• struggle: The key thing in modern communism is the sharpening of the struggle between the new and old.
• focus: This seems to be a definite sharpening of the focus compared with the more inclusive functions of 1912.
• crisis: The sharpening of the crisis in Poland gives an opportunity to adventurers.

Preposition: with

• stone: They need to be sharpened daily with a conical stone.
• juice: Sharpen with either lemon juice or white wine vinegar to taste.