trenchant

adj

1. (archaic)Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp.

   “The trenchant blade, Toledo trusty, / For want of fighting was grown rusty, / And ate into itself, for lack / Of somebody to hew and hack.”

2. (archaic)Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp.

   “The trenchant talonid is a character of some miacids and distinguishes these teeth from the hyaenodontids and oxyaenids.”

3. (figuratively)Keen; biting; vigorously articulate and effective; severe.

   “trenchant wit”

   “His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe.”

   “His trenchant criticisms of the Church's repression […] include a discussion of the considerable 1938 success of the fledgling NODL in getting magazines removed from various points of sale.”