to sharpen
Examples
About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.
There is no such whetstone, to sharpen a good wit and encourage a will to learning, as is praise.
What do you want to do with the [Communist] Party? A racing stable? What good is it to sharpen a knife every day if you never use it for slicing? A party is never more than a means. There is only one objective: power.
Within each individual young person you meet, you have the same fields to plow. The trick is just to wake thmem up, to sharpen their ears for what's already there in the music.
You may go to Kukutyin to sharpen oats.
If you put in the work to sharpen the steel, it will eventually turn into needles.