Harrow

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈhaɹəʊ/
• US IPA: /ˈhæɹoÊŠ/
• Rhymes: -æɹəʊ

Either representing unattested Old English *hearwe or *hearġe (perhaps ultimately cognate with harvest), or from Old Norse harfr/herfi

According to eng. harrow maaske laant fra nordisk, Eng. harrow probably loaned from Norse

compare Danish harve ("harrow"), Dutch hark ("rake"). Akin to Latin carpere.

Full definition of harrow

Noun

1. A device consisting of a heavy framework having several disks or teeth in a row, which is dragged across ploughed land to smooth or break up the soil, to remove weeds or cover seeds; a harrow plow.
• 1918, Louise & Aylmer Maude, trans. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Oxford 1998, p. 153:He sent for the carpenter, who was under contract to be with the threshing-machine, but it turned out that he was mending the harrows, which should have been mended the week before Lent.
• 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, “It may be fun for her,” I said with one of my bitter laughs, “but it isn't so diverting for the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she plunges so ruthlessly in the soup.”
• 1969, Bessie Head, When Rain Clouds Gather, Heinemann 1995, p. 28:Part of your job would be to learn tractor ploughing and the use of planters, harrows, and cultivators.
2. (military) An obstacle formed by turning an ordinary harrow upside down, the frame being buried.

Verb

1. To drag a harrow over; to break up with a harrow.
• Bible, Job xxxix. 10Will he harrow the valleys after thee?
• 1719 Daniel Defoe, When the corn was sown, I had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch it, as it may be called, rather than rake or harrow it.
2. To traumatize or disturb; to frighten or torment.The headless horseman harrowed Ichabod Crane as he tried to reach the bridge.
3. To break or tear, as with a harrow; to wound; to lacerate; to torment or distress; to vex.
• Rowemy aged muscles harrowed up with whips
• ShakespeareI could a tale unfold, whose lightest word
  Would harrow up thy soul.

Derived terms

• harrowing
• Harrowing of Hell

From Old French haro, harou, of uncertain origin.

Interjection

1. (obsolete) A call for help, or of distress, alarm etc.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi:Harrow, the flames, which me consume (said hee)
  Ne can be quencht, within my secret bowels bee.