harrow

1 of 3

verb (1)

har·​row ˈher-(ˌ)ō How to pronounce harrow (audio)
ˈha-(ˌ)rō
harrowed; harrowing; harrows

transitive verb

archaic
: pillage, plunder
long harrowed by oppressor's handSir Walter Scott

harrow

2 of 3

noun

: a cultivating tool set with spikes, teeth, or disks and used primarily for breaking up and smoothing the soil

harrow

3 of 3

verb (2)

harrowed; harrowing; harrows

transitive verb

1
: to cultivate with a harrow (see harrow entry 2)
harrow the fields
2
: torment, vex
harrowed by war
has not set out to appall the reader with horrors nor to harrow him with miseriesDouglas Stewart
harrower
ˈher-ə-wər How to pronounce harrow (audio)
ˈha-rə-
noun

Examples of harrow in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
Plus, Shin Ha-young is given little to do in the second half of the series despite her effortless shift from warm third wheel to harrowed and weary abuse victim. Geoffrey Bunting, Rolling Stone, 26 Oct. 2023 Track maintenance will then harrow the track to release the compactness and return it to its regular consistency for racing. Los Angeles Times, 28 Dec. 2021 That same humble deity, in the course of putting on humanity, had obtained a glimpse of the conditions on earth—poverty, needless estrangement, a stubborn pattern of rich ruling over poor—and decided to incite a revolution that would harrow Hell. Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 28 Dec. 2020
Noun
And yet the earth is blunder and obtuseness— no swaying it, even on bended knee: its rotting flute gives sharpness to the hearing, its morning clarinet harrows the ear. Merve Emre, The New York Review of Books, 13 Feb. 2024 Moore recommended that new tractors and harrows with better screening equipment be employed. Joe Drape, New York Times, 12 Sep. 2023 WallStreetBets forum, were finally seizing control after being treated for decades as no more than toads beneath the harrow (to cite Rudyard Kipling). Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'harrow.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb (1)

Middle English herwen, harwen — more at harry

Note: See note at harry.

Noun

Middle English harewe, harwe, harow, of uncertain origin

Note: The Oxford English Dictionary, first edition, suggests inheritance from an unattested Old English *hearwe or *hearge, though the Middle English word is perhaps more likely a loan from Old Norse, despite the phonetic objections—compare Norwegian harv, horv "harrow," Swedish harv, Danish harve, Old Icelandic herfi. The further origin of the Scandinavian word is unclear. G. Kroonen, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Brill, 2013) suggests as an etymon *harbō, akin to *harbjan- "to pluck" (whence, allegedly, Norwegian dialect herva "to snatch"), akin to Germanic *harbista- "autumn" and Latin carpere "to pluck, pick, gather" (see harvest entry 1). A harrow, however, is not a tool for plucking or gathering.

Verb (2)

Middle English harwen, harowen, derivative of harwe, harow harrow entry 2

First Known Use

Verb (1)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb (2)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of harrow was before the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near harrow

Cite this Entry

“Harrow.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harrow. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

harrow

1 of 2 noun
har·​row ˈhar-ō How to pronounce harrow (audio)
: a cultivating tool that has spikes, teeth, or disks and is used for breaking up and smoothing the soil

harrow

2 of 2 verb
1
: to cultivate with a harrow
2
harrower noun

Geographical Definition

Harrow

geographical name

Har·​row ˈha-(ˌ)rō How to pronounce Harrow (audio)
borough of northwestern Greater London, England population 241,000

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