harrowing means causing pain or distress; harrying.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, harrowing ranks #2,309 of 14,431 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #7,082 of 14,423 for Most Sublime Words, #7,084 of 14,414 for Most Elegant Words, #7,102 of 14,448 for Funniest Words.
harrowing is pronounced /ˈhæɹəʊ.ɪŋ/.
Why “harrowing” is a great word
Causing acute distress, anguish, or shock; profoundly disturbing. From the present participle of the verb 'harrow' (meaning to torment or distress, from Old English *hergian*, 'to harry, ravage') + the suffix '-ing'. First attested in 1799. Unlike 'poignant' (which evokes a keen, often bittersweet sadness) or 'unsettling' (which merely disturbs the peace), 'harrowing' describes a violence done to the soul's composure. It is the sound of a voice cracking mid-sentence in the witness box, the particular silence after a phone call at three in the morning, and the way a photograph can suddenly reveal its subject is already dead—the mind's attempt to unsee what it has seen, and the knowledge that it never will.
Etymology
By surface analysis, harrow + -ing.
adj
- Causing pain or distress; harrying.“Harrowing journeys down the dark roads of anger, violence, and madness”
noun
- The process of breaking up earth with a harrow.“The field received two harrowings.”
- Suffering, torment.
- Ravaging; hostile incursion; spoliation; intentional widespread destruction.“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[.]”
- Ravaging; hostile incursion; spoliation; intentional widespread destruction.; Christ's ravaging or hostile incursion of Hell, conducted between his crucifixion and resurrection, in which he liberated the souls of the righteous held captive by Satan.“As in other myths, like Christ's harrowing of hell, the initiate descends into the netherworld for the magical three days.”
Words closest in meaning
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