Use a strop on

The answer

HONE

4 letters. See every clue for this answer on the HONE answer page.

Used 9 times across 8 distinct years; most recently in 2019; first recorded in 2003. It appears in 5 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other answers for this clue

The same clue has also been answered these ways in the xd corpus. Answers inside this collection link to their own answer page.

• WHET (2 uses in xd)
• SHARPEN (1 uses in xd)

Other clues for HONE

Every other clue in this collection answered by HONE, most used first.

• Sharpen - used 498 times, most recently in 2026
• Fine-tune - used 89 times, most recently in 2026
• Perfect - used 66 times, most recently in 2026
• Make sharper - used 52 times, most recently in 2026
• Sharpen, as skills - used 42 times, most recently in 2026
• Whet - used 36 times, most recently in 2023
• Give an edge to - used 35 times, most recently in 2026
• Put an edge on - used 34 times, most recently in 2026
• Refine - used 32 times, most recently in 2026
• Whetstone. - used 30 times, most recently in 2007
• Use a whetstone - used 23 times, most recently in 2011
• Improve, as skills - used 21 times, most recently in 2026
• Improve - used 19 times, most recently in 2025
• Give an edge - used 15 times, most recently in 2024
• Sharpen, as a knife - used 15 times, most recently in 2026
• Sharpen, as one's skills - used 14 times, most recently in 2024
• Improve, as a skill - used 13 times, most recently in 2023
• Improve, as one's skills - used 13 times, most recently in 2023
• Use a strop - used 11 times, most recently in 2009
• Use a whetstone on - used 11 times, most recently in 2019
• Perfect, as a skill - used 10 times, most recently in 2025
• Refine, as a skill - used 10 times, most recently in 2026
• Strop - used 9 times, most recently in 2008
• Make perfect - used 8 times, most recently in 2006
• Make sharp - used 8 times, most recently in 2025
• Sharpen, as a skill - used 8 times, most recently in 2025
• Perfect over time - used 7 times, most recently in 2025
• Sharpen, as a razor - used 7 times, most recently in 2021
• Work on the edge - used 7 times, most recently in 2023
• Make more effective - used 6 times, most recently in 2019
• Put to the grindstone - used 6 times, most recently in 2018

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• Use a swizzle stick - STIR, used 114 times
• Use a keyboard - TYPE, used 113 times
• Use scissors - SNIP, used 81 times
• Not in use - IDLE, used 50 times
• Use a letter opener - SLIT, used 32 times
• Use a stopwatch - TIME, used 29 times

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