honed; honing
1
: to sharpen or smooth with a whetstone
2
: to make more acute, intense, or effective : whet
helped her hone her comic timing—
Patricia Bosworth
Patricia Bosworth
honer
noun
honed; honing
Examples of hone in a Sentence
Verb (1)
honed the knife's blade to razor-like sharpness
honed his crossword-puzzle skills by reading the dictionary as though it were a thrilling novel
honed the edge of the axe until it was amazingly sharp
Recent Examples on the Web
Chris Wiley, New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2025
Ethosource has honed the ability to coordinate shipments from multiple manufacturers, orchestrate local installation teams, and adapt to inevitable construction delays and challenges.
—Daniel Fusch, USA Today, 9 Sep. 2025
To survive a ruthless winnowing—to go from one of about 16,000 high-school quarterbacks each year to one of the 10 good ones in the NFL to one of the three or so each generation who earn the Hall of Fame’s gold jacket—hones certain traits within them and strips others away.
—Seth Wickersham, The Atlantic, 8 Sep. 2025
Before that, Leblanc held senior roles in design and product development at Isabel Marant, Céline and Sonia Rykiel, and later led womenswear buying at French department store chain Printemps, honing her eye for both creativity and commercial viability.
—Wwd Staff, Footwear News, 8 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hone
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Verb
What Shore was doing during those first days roaming Manhattan with his camera was not just acquiring formal skills but also honing a particular quality of attention that would serve him for the rest of his career.
—Chris Wiley, New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2025
Ethosource has honed the ability to coordinate shipments from multiple manufacturers, orchestrate local installation teams, and adapt to inevitable construction delays and challenges.
—Daniel Fusch, USA Today, 9 Sep. 2025
To survive a ruthless winnowing—to go from one of about 16,000 high-school quarterbacks each year to one of the 10 good ones in the NFL to one of the three or so each generation who earn the Hall of Fame’s gold jacket—hones certain traits within them and strips others away.
—Seth Wickersham, The Atlantic, 8 Sep. 2025
Before that, Leblanc held senior roles in design and product development at Isabel Marant, Céline and Sonia Rykiel, and later led womenswear buying at French department store chain Printemps, honing her eye for both creativity and commercial viability.
—Wwd Staff, Footwear News, 8 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hone
Cite this Entry
“Hone.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hone. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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