# harrowing

Pronunciation: say "HA-roh-ing" US /ˈhæɹoʊɪŋ/, UK /ˈhæɹəʊiŋ/

## Adjective

1. Causing pain or distress; tormenting in a relentless, harassing way.
   - Simple: Causing pain or making someone very upset and troubled.
   - _Survivors gave harrowing accounts of the night the dam broke._
   - _The documentary follows one family's harrowing escape across three borders._

## Verb

2. Present participle and gerund of harrow. — present participle and gerund of harrow.
   - Simple: The -ing form of harrow. Use it after am, is, are, was or were, or to name the action.
   - _Two tractors were harrowing the plowed ground to smooth it for seeding._
   - _The crew spent the afternoon harrowing the south field after the rain._

## Noun

3. The process of breaking up soil with a harrow, a toothed frame dragged across plowed land.
   - Simple: Breaking up the soil in a field with a farm tool that is pulled over the ground.
   - _A second harrowing broke up the clods the plow had left behind._
   - _Spring harrowing begins as soon as the ground is dry enough to work._
4. In Christianity, Christ's forcible invasion of Hell between his crucifixion and resurrection, in which he freed the souls of the righteous held captive by Satan.
   - Simple: In Christian belief, Christ breaking into Hell between his death and rising again, to free good people's souls.
   - _Medieval mystery plays staged the harrowing of hell as a loud, triumphant spectacle._
   - _In the icon, the harrowing is shown with Adam and Eve being pulled from their tombs._
5. Suffering or torment, of the mind or the body.
   - Simple: Terrible pain or suffering, in the body or the mind.
   - _The memoir records the harrowings of her years in the refugee camp with quiet restraint._
   - _Nothing in his training had prepared him for the harrowing of those first weeks at the front._
6. The deliberate ravaging and plundering of a land by a hostile force, causing widespread destruction.
   - Simple: When enemies attack a place and destroy and steal things there on purpose.
   - _The harrowing of the border counties left farms burned and granaries empty for a generation._
   - _Monks recorded each harrowing of the coast by raiders who returned every summer._

## Origin

By surface analysis, formed from harrow + -ing.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/harrowing (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).