to draw a harrow over (land).
to disturb keenly or painfully; distress the mind, feelings, etc., of.
to ravish; violate; despoil.
(of Christ) to descend into (hell) to free the righteous held captive.
a borough of Greater London, in SE England.
a boarding school for boys, founded in 1571 at Harrow-on-the-Hill, an urban district near London, England.
(tr) to draw a harrow over (land)
(intr) (of soil) to become broken up through harrowing
(tr) to distress; vex
to plunder or ravish
(of Christ) to descend into (hell) to rescue righteous souls
1250–1300; Middle English harwe; akin to Old Norse herfi harrow, Dutch hark rake, Greek krṓpion sickle
before 1000; Middle English harwen, herwen, Old English hergian to harry
To harrow is to cause worry and upset, the way a truly scary movie might harrow you, making it hard to sleep without turning on the light. Harrow is an uncommon verb that was originally used in a religious context. You're much more likely to hear the adjective harrowing used for things that are extremely distressing. But if your cat torments you nightly with her incessant meowing, you might try yelling, "Why do you harrow me?" In agriculture, harrow has a completely different meaning: it's a device that helps break up the soil. And if you harrow your land, you use such a device.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Track maintenance will then harrow the track to release the compactness and return it to its regular consistency for racing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 27, 2021
Alcée rode his horse under the shelter of a side projection where the chickens had huddled and there were plows and a harrow piled up in the corner.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021
In her diary entry for July 15, 1944, Anne Frank wrote words that would harrow and challenge generations not yet born: “I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 24, 2019
Called DISCOL, the simple trial involved raking the centre of a roughly 11-square-kilometre plot in the Pacific Ocean with an 8-metre-wide implement called a plough harrow.
From Nature ● Jul. 23, 2019
I said: “I was planning to start today. I went yesterday and looked at the field. I have to run the harrow over it first.”
From "Z for Zachariah" by Robert C. O’Brien
Zac, the second of the couple’s two boys, was schooled at Mill Hill—not Westminster or Harrow, though still one of the city’s better private schools.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
On the London Underground, there will be no Hammersmith and City line services over the four days of the Easter weekend while the Bakerloo line will be disrupted between Stonebridge Park and Harrow and Wealdstone.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2026
A 40-year-old and a 55-year-old were arrested at addresses in Barnet, a 52-year-old in Watford and a 22-year-old in Harrow.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2026
Six other men aged 29, 39, 42, 49 and two aged 20, were arrested at the same location in Harrow on suspicion of assisting an offender.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2026
And because of Doon Harrow, of all people.
From "The City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau
Blacksmiths were actually the rocket scientists of their day, because they could make anything and fix anything - wagon wheels, plows and harrows.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 22, 2016
Which is another way of saying that the novel harrows the particular plot she has made her own all these years, of weakness — and why it repels.
From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2015
He now owns two tractors and a combine; his barn and tool sheds are jammed with plows, harrows, seeders.
From Time Magazine Archive
He is beautiful, and he harrows the heart.
From Time Magazine Archive
He would spend the nights walking around the room thinking aloud, searching for a way to apply the principles of the pendulum to oxcarts, to harrows, to everything that was useful when put into motion.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
