Harrowing

Quick meaning: Harrowing is a verb meaning present participle and gerund of harrow.

Meaning

present participle and gerund of harrow.

More Meanings

1. (formal) Causing pain or distress; harrying.
2. The process of breaking up earth with a harrow.
3. Suffering, torment.
4. Ravaging; hostile incursion; spoliation; intentional widespread destruction.

Example Sentences

The field received two harrowings.

Harrowing journeys down the dark roads of anger, violence, and madness

Toward the end of the war, Benoit was sent off on his own with forged papers; he wound up working as a horse groom at a chalet in the Loire valley. Mandelbrot describes this harrowing youth with great sangfroid.

Scientists who complain about the helplessness of politicians might consider the desolation in England which followed the harrowing of the north by William the Conqueror or the state of the Palatinate long after the end of the Thirty Years War[.]

Word Forms

• harrowings

Synonyms for harrowing

Depending on context, synonyms include agonizing, excruciating, painful, torturous, torturing, torturesome.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include agonizing, excruciating, painful, torturing, torturesome, torturous.

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