SHARP - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

SHARPAuthored

The Law Mind • 816 words

Definition

In legal usage, "sharp" describes a clause in a mortgage, bond, or other security instrument that authorizes the creditor to take immediate, summary action upon the debtor's default or breach of a condition — without the ordinary procedural delays or notice requirements that might otherwise apply. The instrument itself may be called "sharp" when this quality pervades its enforcement provisions.

A sharp clause typically grants the secured party the power to proceed directly to execution or foreclosure upon default, compressing or eliminating the grace period and preliminary steps that non-sharp instruments would require. The effect is to place the creditor in an unusually strong enforcement position from the moment of breach.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To raise the pitch of a note half a step; to play tricks in bargaining; to sharpen.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Having a very thin edge or fine point; keen; penetrating; terminating in a point; acute to the taste or smell.

The gap between common and legal meaning is narrow but worth noting. The common sense of "sharp" as cutting, keen, or quick maps loosely onto the legal usage — a sharp instrument cuts through procedural delay — but the legal term is a term of art applied specifically to the enforcement provisions of security instruments. A reader encountering "sharp clause" in a historical deed or mortgage cannot rely on ordinary meaning to understand what procedural rights are at stake.

Common Confusion

"Sharp" in legal instruments should not be confused with "sharpness" in the sense of sharp dealing, fraud, or unconscionability. Anderson's Dictionary notes the term may have been used locally, suggesting it was not universally standardized. Researchers encountering "sharp" in historical documents must distinguish between: (1) a formal term of art describing enforcement acceleration in a security instrument, and (2) loose colloquial use describing aggressive or clever drafting. The two uses can appear in close proximity in older equity opinions, which sometimes criticized sharp clauses on unconscionability grounds while using the same word in both senses.

Why It Matters in Research

This term appears primarily in historical sources relating to mortgage law, secured transactions, and equity jurisprudence. Several research traps apply.

First, the term is geographically and temporally uneven. Anderson's explicitly flags that the usage may be local, which means its absence from a particular jurisdiction's case law does not mean the concept was absent — only that courts there used different vocabulary. Researchers working in American colonial or early republic sources, or in English equity records, are most likely to encounter it. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, statutory mortgage law increasingly displaced the need for sharp clauses by codifying notice and cure rights, making the term progressively obsolete.

Second, when "sharp" appears in equity opinions, it often signals a doctrinal contest. Courts of equity were skeptical of provisions that stripped debtors of any opportunity to redeem, and "sharp clause" sometimes appears in opinions discussing the equity of redemption, unconscionability, or relief against forfeiture. The term is thus a navigational signal toward those doctrinal threads, not merely a description of mechanics.

Third, the cases cited in Anderson's — including Broad v. Broad, 40 Cal. 496 (1871) and the English authorities — reflect a moment when the legal status of such clauses was contested across jurisdictions. Researchers tracing the development of foreclosure law or debtor protection doctrine should treat "sharp clause" as a period-specific marker pointing to that contested territory.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's and Anderson's agree on the core meaning: a sharp clause (or sharp instrument) empowers a creditor to take prompt, summary action upon default. Neither source treats this as a universally accepted term of art — Anderson's explicitly hedges with "perhaps locally" — which is an important qualification that researchers should carry forward.

Anderson's is the more useful source here because it provides case citations and a slightly richer contextual note, suggesting the term had Anglo-American currency in the nineteenth century but was not uniformly adopted. Black's entry is more spare, confirming the meaning without the hedging.

Neither dictionary addresses what "summary action" meant procedurally in specific jurisdictions, and neither traces how statutory codification of mortgage foreclosure procedures eventually made the concept redundant as a distinct drafting term. Researchers should not assume that a sharp clause's legal effect was identical across the jurisdictions where the term appears.

Jurisdictional Note

The term appears most reliably in English equity sources and in American states with significant nineteenth-century mortgage litigation. Anderson's citation to California (Broad v. Broad) and federal circuit authority (Parker v. United States) suggests American usage, but the explicit caveat about local usage means researchers should treat the term's meaning as potentially jurisdiction-specific and verify against local practice before drawing broad conclusions.

SHARPmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

A “sharp” clause in a mortgage or other security (or the whole instrument described as ‘‘sharp”’) is one which empowers the creditor to take prompt and summary action upon default in payment or breach of other conditions.

SHARPmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

In the sense of authorizing summary action, is used (perhaps locally) of a clause in a mortgage or bond, or of the whole instrument itself, which provides for proceedings in execution immediately upon The Queen v. Bishop of Oxford, L. R., 4 Q. B. 257, 553 (1879); 1 Barn. & C. *85; 2 Dowl. & R. 172. 2 Broad v. Broad, 40 Cal. 496 (1871). • Parker v. United States, 2 Wash. 363 (1809). • See People v. McCumber, 18 N. Y. 321 (1858); Thompson v. Erie R. Co., 45 id. 471 (1871); Wayland v. Tysen, ib. 282-83 (1871); Littlejohn v. Greeley, 22 How. Pr. 345 (1861); Gostorfs v. Taafe, 18 Cal. 388 (1861); Glenn v. Brush, 3 Col. 31 (1876); Greenbaum v. Turrill, 57 Cal. 287 (1881); Baker v. Foster, 29 Minn. 167 (1882); 1 Chitty, Pl. 541. 5 See 49 III. 110; 13 N. Y. 98; 27 Barb. 371; 46 Tex. 15; 23 Wis. 655. • Field v. Pierce, 102 Mass. 261 (1869), Ames, J.; People v. Commissioners, 40 Barb. 353 (1863). Morrice v. Aylmer, L. R., 10 Ch. Ap. 155 (1874). Gilpin v. Hollingsworth, 3 Md. 194 (1852); Provenchere's Estate, 1 Leg. Gaz. R. 69 (1870). tion; as, for non-payment of money -principal, interest, premium of insurance, or taxes.

SHARPa.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Having a very thin edge or fine point; of a nature to cut or pierce easily; not blunt or dull; keen. He dies upon my scimeter's sharp point. Shak. Terminating in a point or edge; not obtuse or rounded; somewhat pointed or edged; peaked or ridged; as, a sharp hill; sharp features. Affecting the sense as if pointed or cutting, keen, penetrating, acute: to the taste or smell, pungent, acid, sour, as ammonia has a sharp taste and odor; to the hearing, piercing, shrill, as a sharp sound or voice; to the eye, instantaneously brilliant, dazzling, as a sharp flash. High in pitch; acute; as, a sharp note or tone. Raised a semitone in pitch; as, C sharp (C#), which is a half step, or semitone, higher than C. So high as to be out of tune, or above true pitch; as, the tone is sharp; that instrument is sharp. Opposed in all these senses to Ant: flat. Very trying to the feelings; pierching; keen; severe; painful; distressing; as, sharp pain, weather; a sharp and frosty air. Sharp misery had worn him to the bones. Shak. The morning sharp and clear. Cowper. In sharpest perils faithful proved. Keble. Cutting in language or import; biting; sarcastic; cruel; harsh; rigorous; severe; as, a sharp rebuke. "That sharp look." Tennyson. To that place the sharp Athenian law Can not pursue us. Shak. Be thy words severe, Sharp as merits but the sword forbear. Dryden. Of keen perception; quick to discern or distinguish; having nice discrimination; acute; penetrating; sagacious; clever; as, a sharp eye; sharp sight, hearing, or judgment. Nothing makes men sharper . . . than want. Addison. Many other things belong to the material world, wherein the sharpest philosophers have never yeL. Watts. Eager in pursuit; keen in quest; impatient for gratification; keen; as, a sharp appetite. Fierce; ardent; fiery; violent; impetuous. "In sharp contest of battle." Milton. A sharp assault already is begun. Dryden. Keenly or unduly attentive to one's own interest; close and exact in dealing; shrewd; as, a sharp dealer; a sharp customer. The necessity of being so sharp and exacting. Swift. Composed of hard, angular grains; gritty; as, sharp sand. Moxon. Steep; precipitous; abrupt; as, a sharp ascent or descent; a sharp turn or curve. Uttered in a whisper, or with the breath alone, without voice, as certain consonants, such as p, k, t, f; surd; nonvocal; aspirated.

SHARPadv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To a point or edge; piercingly; eagerly; sharply. M. Arnold. The head [of a spear] full sharp yground. Chaucer. You bite so sharp at reasons. Shak. Precisely; exactly; as, we shall start at ten o'clock sharp. [Colloq.] Look sharp, attend; be alert. [Colloq.]

SHARPn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A sharp tool or weapon. [Obs.] If butchers had but the manners to go to sharps, gentlemen would be contented with a rubber at cuffs. Collier. The character [#] used to indicate that the note before which it is placed is to be raised a half step, or semitone, in pitch. A sharp tone or note. Shak. A portion of a stream where the water runs very rapidly. [Prov. Eng.] C. Kingsley. A sewing needle having a very slender point; a needle of the most pointed of the three grades, blunts, betweens, and sharps. Same as Middlings, 1. An expert. [Slang]

sharpverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

To raise the pitch of a note half a step making a natural note a sharp. | To play tricks in bargaining; to act the sharper. | To sharpen.

Sharpname

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

A surname. | An unincorporated community in Ozark County, Missouri, United States.

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