[f. ACUTE a. + -NESS.] The quality of being acute; hence
1. Of things material: Sharpness of point or edge.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 84. Glasse … by reason of its acutenesse and angularity, commonly excoriates the parts through which it passeth.
1798. Greville, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVIII. 441. The hexaedral pyramids are usually incomplete in their apex, and they vary in acuteness.
1869. Daily News, 14 May. To appreciate for himself the poisonous odours of Barnwell Pool, the acuteness of Chesterton Corner, and the perils of the bridge.
2. Of a disease or pain: Sharpness, keenness.
1661. R. Lovell, Anim. & Min., 438. The acutenesse of the diseases, and signes of concoction.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 353. If the Patient survives three Days, the Acuteness of the Pain abates.
3. Of sounds: Shrillness, high pitch.
a. 1691. Boyle, Ess. Intestine Motions of Solids, iii. Wks. 1772, I. 446. This acuteness of sound will shew, that whilst to the eye the bell seems to be at rest, yet the minute parts of it continue in a very brisk motion, without which they could not strike the air strongly.
1760. Phil. Trans., LI. 768. All this seems plainly to put the difference of the tones only in the acuteness or gravity of the whole.
4. Of the senses or feelings: Keenness, quickness, sensitiveness.
1690. Locke, Hum. Underst., II. xxiii. § 12. 141. If Eyes so framed, could not view at once the Hand, and the Characters of the Hour-plate, and thereby at a distance see what a-Clock it was, their Owner could not be much benefited by that acuteness.
1764. Reid, Inq. Hum. Mind, ii. § 1. 104. The acuteness of smell in some animals, shews us, that these effluvia spread far.
1823. Lamb, Elia, I. 14 (1865), 115. A constitutional acuteness to this class of sufferings.
1872. Darwin, Emotions, xiii. 342. When we direct our whole attention to any one sense, its acuteness is increased.
5. Of the mental faculties: Readiness of apprehension, keenness of penetration, shrewdness.
1627. Bp. Hall, Epistles, IV. iii. 341. To finde wit in poetry, in philosophy profoundnesse, in mathematicks acuteness.
1755. Young, Centaur, i. Wks. 1757, IV. 109. The boasted acuteness of his superior understanding.
1847. Hallam, Lit. Eur., II. 235. It cannot be reckoned a proof of his acuteness in Zoology, that he placed the hippopotamus among aquatic animals.
1859. Geo. Eliot, Adam Bede, 166. The father and mother exchanged a significant glance of amusement at their eldest-born’s acuteness.
