incisive

comparative more incisive · superlative most incisive

1. Intelligently analytical and concise. (of a person or mental process)
   1. Accurate and sharply focused. (of an account)
2. Quickly proceeding to judgment and forceful in expression. (of an action)

   An incisive producer, who expressed vehement disapproval with my pitch upon my first sentence.

   1 more example

   She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry. His wooing had been brief but incisive.

   1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC

   Synonyms: decisive, forthright

3. Having the quality of incising, cutting, or penetrating, as with a sharp instrument; trenchant.

   An incisive, high voice.

   1862–1863, Mary Ann Evans, Romola

   1 more example

   And her incisive smile accrediting / That treason of false witness in my blush.

   1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Second Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC

   Synonyms: sharp, acute, sarcastic, biting

4. relationalanatomyOf or relating to the incisors.

   the incisive bones, the premaxillaries