harrow

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A device consisting of a heavy framework having several disks or teeth in a row, which is dragged across ploughed land to smooth or break up the soil, to remove weeds or cover seeds; a harrow plow.

   He sent for the carpenter, who was under contract to be with the threshing-machine, but it turned out that he was mending the harrows, which should have been mended the week before Lent.

2. 2
   verb

   To drag a harrow over; to break up with a harrow.

   Will he harrow the valleys after thee?

3. 3
   verb

   To traumatize or disturb; to torment, distress or vex.

   It harrows me with fear and wonder.

4. 4
   verb

   To break or tear, as if with a harrow; to wound; to lacerate.

   my aged muscles harrow'd up with whips

5. 5
   intj

   A call for help, or of distress, alarm etc.

   Harrow, the flames, which me consume (said hee) / Ne can be quencht, within my secret bowels bee.

6. 6
   noun

   a cultivator that pulverizes or smooths the soil

7. 7
   verb

   draw a harrow over (land)

8. 8
   noun

   An obstacle formed by turning an ordinary harrow upside down, the frame being buried.

Etymology

From Middle English harwe, harow, from Old English *hearwa (perhaps ultimately cognate with harvest), or from Old Norse harfr/herfi; compare Danish harve (“harrow”), Dutch hark (“rake”). Akin to Latin carpere. According to the OED, the verb senses are partly derived from the noun sense, partly from a by-form of the verb harry, itself from Old English hergian.