Noun
The bow of a ship.
Usage- Informal
The most difficult or dangerous aspect of something.
Usage- Figurative
- Examples
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to be on/at the sharp end of something
to get the sharp end
More examples (3)
From individual stock exchange floor traders to prominent businessmen and establishment banks like Standard Chartered PLC, a growing list of Hong Kong identities are finding themselves on the sharp end of regulatory enforcement.
All of us have benefited from theft and environmental degradation, all of us have depended on new mines, new finds. North Queensland is just at the sharp end.
The heat wave has been severe enough to make international headlines, but it is far from the only impact of climate change I’ve witnessed in the first half of my six-month journey through the country to research and report on climate change and the energy transition India is undertaking in an attempt to mitigate it. India is at the sharp end of this predicament.
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see sharp, end.
- Examples
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Brutus did n't^([sic]) worry after he heard that his wife took a few hot coals. He called a servant and ran straight into his sword starting at the sharp end.