Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Disagreeable to one of the senses, as.
- adjective Disagreeable to the sense of hearing.
- adjective Disagreeable to the sense of sight.
- adjective Unpleasantly coarse and rough to the touch.
- adjective Unpleasant, uncomfortable, or hostile to survival.
- adjective Severe, cruel, or exacting.
- adjective Disagreeable to the mind or feelings.
- adjective Expressing displeasure or disapproval.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To sound harshly; crack.
- Rough to the touch or to any of the senses; sharp or sour to the taste, discordant to the ear, inharmonious to the eye, etc.; grating; rasping; acrid; irritating: as, a harsh surface; harsh fruit; a harsh voice; a harsk combination of colors.
- Hard or severe in effect; of such a nature as to be repellent from any physical point of view.
- Repugnant to the mind or the sensibilities; mentally or morally forbidding; hard to bear, endure, resolve upon, etc.
- Austere in character or severe in action; stern; hard; unkind.
- Synonyms and Severe, Rigorous, etc. (see
austere ); acrimonious, ill-natured, ill-tempered, uncivil, ungracious, churlish, brutal.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Rough; disagreeable; grating.
- adjective disagreeable to the touch.
- adjective disagreeable to the taste.
- adjective disagreeable to the ear.
- adjective Unpleasant and repulsive to the sensibilities; austere; crabbed; morose; abusive; abusive; severe; rough.
- adjective (Painting, Drawing, etc.) Having violent contrasts of color, or of light and shade; lacking in harmony.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Unpleasantly
rough to thetouch or othersenses . - adjective
Severe orcruel . - verb intransitive, slang To negatively
criticize . - verb transitive, slang to put a damper on (a mood).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective unpleasantly stern
- adjective disagreeable to the senses
- adjective sharply disagreeable; rigorous
- adjective severe
- adjective of textures that are rough to the touch or substances consisting of relatively large particles
- adjective unkind or cruel or uncivil
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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JOHN KING, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Don't know if I use the term harsh battle, but Many think the president has to strike a new tone in the relationships.
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Last September, thousands of blacks descended on Jena, La., to protest what they called the harsh charging of six African-American high-school students by a local prosecutor for the serious beating of a white classmate.
Black in a New Light 2008
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So why did the CIA destroy videotapes that reportedly show what they called harsh techniques, harsh interrogation techniques?
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BLITZER: You know, governor, a lot of Democrats, a lot of Gore supporters have been complaining about what they describe as harsh rhetoric coming from you, from Karen Hughes, the communication director for Governor Bush.
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The benevolent man reproved the keeper for what he called harsh words.
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CNN -- Hundreds of California prisoners remain on hunger strike in protest of what they describe as their harsh treatment, though state authorities and inmate-rights advocates differed over the numbers involved.
CNN.com 2011
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On Monday, three Americans freed after being held in Iran lent their support to the Occupy movement, applauding its participants' idealism and activism while making a specific point to protest what they call the harsh treatment of state prisoners in California.
CNN.com 2011
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LA Times: Detainee says he lied to CIA in harsh interrogations
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For them to even advocate individual boycotts is hypocritical, given that Mexico, which they refuse to even criticize about its immigration policies, has much harsher restrictions on immigration than Arizona (reflected in harsh prison sentences) — and on not just illegal aliens (as in Arizona) but legal aliens as well (restricting the civil liberties and political rights of legal aliens).
The Volokh Conspiracy » What Will Kagan Say about AZ Immigration Law 2010
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From your original post where you said: “certain harsh American critics of Israel, who surely think of themselves as enlightened people with no prejudice against Jews, could launch certain types of venomous attacks against Jewish supporters of Israel” one might think that the phrase “who surely think of themselves as enlightened people with no prejudice” sort of suggest that that is not thecase.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Jews, Liberalism, Nationalism–Some Interesting Historical Continuities 2010
sonofgroucho commented on the word harsh
This word seems to be a bit trendy at the moment.
January 2, 2008