harrowing

[har-oh-ing]

adjective

1. extremely disturbing or distressing; grievous.

   a harrowing experience.

   Synonyms: heartbreaking, agonizing, painful

Other Word Forms

• harrowingly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of harrowing¹

First recorded in 1800–10; harrow ¹ + -ing ²

Example Sentences

The facility’s harrowing description “kind of made me want them to go there even more,” he said.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

A collection of stories from the annals of the Explorers Club puts harrowing Arctic exploits side by side with less demanding journeys.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

As Carlos told it, his brother took the clippers, began to buzz, and in the harrowing tradition of at-home haircuts gone amok, somewhere along the way…

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

In their final, harrowing moments, they may have tried to pull it together with cables.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Mr. King’s most harrowing passages mesh the living and the undead in ’Salem’s Lot.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• agonizing 
• chilling 
• distressing www.thesaurus.com
• disturbing 
• excruciating 
• heart-wrenching 
• heartbreaking 
• painful 
• terrifying 
• torturous 
• traumatic