as in to plague
to cause persistent suffering to
the villagers were gaunt and sickly, harrowed by years of disease and starvation
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Recent Examples of harrow
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
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for harrow
Verb
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Instead, Isaac, 28, will become an unrestricted free agent after nine years in Orlando that were plagued by injury.
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Greenberg tried his best to ignore an irritating ankle injury that had plagued him the last couple of weeks and grimaced under the hazy sunlight as the pitcher, probably 20 or more years his junior, stared him down.
Verb
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They are both afflicted by cognitive and/or hearing issues.
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Two-thirds of respondents afflicted with alpha-gal reported anxiety or depressive disorders in a 2025 University of Missouri survey.
Verb
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Representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine have been persecuted.
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Pennsylvania’s 1682 frame of government promised that law-abiding people would not be persecuted for their religious views or forced to worship.
Verb
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Wayne County prosecutors allege that on June 17, Montgomery tortured and burned a raccoon at a home in the 12000 block of Washburn Street in Detroit and posted a video on social media of the animal being burned alive.
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In fact, the disease has been torturing humans for at least 5,500 years, according to a study published today in the journal Nature .
Verb
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Caleb and Kayda spend a few minutes chatting in the Say Less nook, and Zach torments himself with mental images of them making out just outside of view.
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The best tended to use puns, literalization — turning an idiom into reality — and pedantic humor to delight and torment children in equal measures.
Cite this Entry
“Harrow.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/harrow. Accessed 1 Jul. 2026.
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