incisive

adj

Etymology: Late Middle English (in the sense “cutting, penetrating”), borrowed from Medieval Latin incīsīvus, from incīdō (“to cut in, cut through”) + -īvus (“-ive”, adjectival suffix). Compare Middle French incisif.

1. Intelligently analytical and concise. (of a person or mental process)
2. Intelligently analytical and concise. (of a person or mental process)
3. 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.”

   “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.”

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

   “An incisive, high voice.”

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

5. Of or relating to the incisors.

   “the incisive bones, the premaxillaries”