harsh
adjEtymology
From Middle English harsk, harisk(e), hask(e), herris. Century derived the term from Old Norse harskr (whence Danish harsk (“rancid”), dialectal Norwegian hersk, Swedish härsk, Swedish härsken); the Middle English Dictionary derives it from that and Middle Low German harsch (“rough”, literally “hairy”) (whence also German harsch), from haer (“hair”), from Old Saxon hār, from Proto-West Germanic *hār; the Oxford Dictionary of English derives it from Middle Low German alone.
Definitions
Unpleasantly rough to the touch or other senses.
Severe or cruel.
- harsh decision
- harsh penalty
- harsh teacher
To negatively criticize.
- Quit harshing me already, I said that I was sorry!
- Stop harshing on yourself. Who said you're the ugly sister?
- “Stop harshing on me, Daddy.” “Harshing?” “Don't yell at me. I didn't do anything.”
›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer
To put a damper on (a mood).
- Dude, you're harshing my buzz.
- They're always harshing on the plan, but we're still going through with it.
- On their third date, Lizzie had actually said to him, "You're sort of harshing my mellow." It made him wonder if she might be stupid, and not just young.
A surname.
The neighborhood
- synonymrough
Derived
harshen, harshish, harshly, harsh mistress, harshness, harsh noise, overharsh, unharsh, harsh down, harsh one's mellow
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at harsh. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at harsh. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
8 hops · closes at harsh
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA