Note that lexicographer's use of severe, which shows an overlap in the meaning of the two terms: a sharp, acute illness can have a serious, grievous, extreme course.
Here, the narrator is eluding to some pretty suspicious scenarios involving sharp implements, illness, and betrayal, and, as the piece goes on, many more small evidences of crime and discord emerge accidents, struggles, arguments, and screams.
Egg industry representatives were made aware of the sharp increase in illnesses last week during a meeting of a joint task force of government and producer representatives gathered in Sacramento to address the salmonella problem.
On Nov. 19, three weeks after Chechen terrorists took a Moscow theater audience hostage, the local health inspector recommended that the camp be closed, citing worn-out tents, fire hazards and a sharp increase in illness.
Austerity tends to precipitate a sharp rise in mental illness.
The depiction of mental illness is sharp and engaging, with immensely-talented leading actors, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, playing flawed but terribly-likable people.
Brittney Weissman, an executive director with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said the sharp uptick in shootings of mentally ill people "raises a lot of questions for us".
Yet the recent outbreaks of hepatitis A linked to contaminated scallions imported from Mexico, which have killed three people and sickened hundreds, are only the latest examples in a sharp rise of food-borne illness from fruits and vegetables.
DETROIT, Feb. 25 — Louis Farrakhan, the departing leader of the Nation of Islam, gave what was billed as his last major public address here on Sunday, with his extended illness throwing into sharp focus the question of whether the group will shift toward more mainstream Islamic teachings to survive once it loses its central charismatic figure.
As she helped her family grapple with the effects of illness and convalescence, Sharp says she began to long for solitude and calm.
