harrowed; harrowing; harrows
: a cultivating tool set with spikes, teeth, or disks and used primarily for breaking up and smoothing the soil
Examples of harrow in a Sentence
Verb (2)
the villagers were gaunt and sickly, harrowed by years of disease and starvation
Recent Examples on the Web
John Cherwa, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2025
The research fellow who met me, Birte, was in her forties, and appeared as if she had been harrowed by her work.
—John Ganz, Harper's Magazine, 22 May 2024
Plus, Shin Ha-young is given little to do in the second half of the series despite her effortless shift from warm third wheel to harrowed and weary abuse victim.
—Geoffrey Bunting, Rolling Stone, 26 Oct. 2023
That same humble deity, in the course of putting on humanity, had obtained a glimpse of the conditions on earth—poverty, needless estrangement, a stubborn pattern of rich ruling over poor—and decided to incite a revolution that would harrow Hell.
—Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 28 Dec. 2020
Literary Hub, 9 Oct. 2025
In 1986, a tractor harrow unearthed pieces of a Byzantine bucket.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 25 May 2025
Employees also mow between the rows instead of using a harrow, a machine with spikes or disks to drag through the earth to allow the nutrients to return to the soil.
—Sarah Lapidus, The Arizona Republic, 29 Sep. 2024
And yet the earth is blunder and obtuseness— no swaying it, even on bended knee:
its rotting flute gives sharpness to the hearing,
its morning clarinet harrows the ear.
—Merve Emre, The New York Review of Books, 13 Feb. 2024
Moore recommended that new tractors and harrows with better screening equipment be employed.
—Joe Drape, New York Times, 12 Sep. 2023
WallStreetBets forum, were finally seizing control after being treated for decades as no more than toads beneath the harrow (to cite Rudyard Kipling).
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2022
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Verb
Before the big race, the track was harrowed, bringing it to a better and drier racing surface.
—John Cherwa, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2025
The research fellow who met me, Birte, was in her forties, and appeared as if she had been harrowed by her work.
—John Ganz, Harper's Magazine, 22 May 2024
Plus, Shin Ha-young is given little to do in the second half of the series despite her effortless shift from warm third wheel to harrowed and weary abuse victim.
—Geoffrey Bunting, Rolling Stone, 26 Oct. 2023
That same humble deity, in the course of putting on humanity, had obtained a glimpse of the conditions on earth—poverty, needless estrangement, a stubborn pattern of rich ruling over poor—and decided to incite a revolution that would harrow Hell.
—Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 28 Dec. 2020
Noun
And of course the cycles of farming provided their own doctrine, from harrow to harvest to harrow again, the jobs at the mercy of the season, the season at the mercy of the sky, the sky at the mercy of a law too powerful to comprehend.
—Literary Hub, 9 Oct. 2025
In 1986, a tractor harrow unearthed pieces of a Byzantine bucket.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 25 May 2025
Employees also mow between the rows instead of using a harrow, a machine with spikes or disks to drag through the earth to allow the nutrients to return to the soil.
—Sarah Lapidus, The Arizona Republic, 29 Sep. 2024
And yet the earth is blunder and obtuseness— no swaying it, even on bended knee:
its rotting flute gives sharpness to the hearing,
its morning clarinet harrows the ear.
—Merve Emre, The New York Review of Books, 13 Feb. 2024
Moore recommended that new tractors and harrows with better screening equipment be employed.
—Joe Drape, New York Times, 12 Sep. 2023
WallStreetBets forum, were finally seizing control after being treated for decades as no more than toads beneath the harrow (to cite Rudyard Kipling).
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Harrow.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harrow. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
harrow
1 of 2 noun
har·row
ˈhar-ō 
: a cultivating tool that has spikes, teeth, or disks and is used for breaking up and smoothing the soil
Geographical Definition
Harrow
geographical name
Har·row
ˈha-(ˌ)rō
borough of northwestern Greater London, England population 241,000
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