harsh
Americanadjective
-
ungentle and unpleasant in action or effect.
harsh treatment; harsh manners.
-
grim or unpleasantly severe; stern; cruel; austere.
a harsh life; a harsh master.
- Synonyms:
- bad-tempered, acrimonious, brutal, unkind, unfeeling, hard, brusque
-
physically uncomfortable; desolate; stark.
a harsh land.
- Synonyms:
- rough
-
unpleasant to the ear; grating; strident.
a harsh voice; a harsh sound.
- Synonyms:
- unharmonious, dissonant, discordant
-
unpleasantly rough, ragged, or coarse to the touch.
a harsh surface.
-
jarring to the eye or to the esthetic sense; unrefined; crude; raw.
harsh colors.
-
unpleasant to the taste or sense of smell; bitter; acrid.
a harsh flavor; a harsh odor.
adjective
-
rough or grating to the senses
-
stern, severe, or cruel
verb
Related Words
See stern 1.
Other Word Forms
- harshly adverb
- harshness noun
- overharsh adjective
- overharshly adverb
- overharshness noun
- unharsh adjective
- unharshly adverb
Etymology
Origin of harsh
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English harsk; cognate with German harsch, Danish harsk “rancid”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He made his voice harsh, deliberately, to cut through her fear.
From Literature
Today, even the MPD’s harshest critics begrudgingly praise the department for its efforts in the current explosive atmosphere.
The top federal official in charge of giving loans to nuclear plants had some harsh words this week for nuclear industry officials who want the government to invest more taxpayer funds into building reactors.
From Barron's
The Celtics had spent into what is known as the “second apron”—the zone with the harshest penalties—as they’d competed for titles and viewed it as the cost of doing business.
The rescue service said the prolonged harsh weather conditions placed significant strain on many wildlife species that relied on calmer conditions to forage successfully.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
