harsh

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   severe

   a harsh penalty

2. 2
   adj

   unkind or cruel or uncivil

   had harsh words

3. 3
   adj

   unpleasantly stern

   wild and harsh country full of hot sand and cactus

4. 4
   adj

   disagreeable to the senses

   the harsh cry of a blue jay

5. 5
   adj

   Severe or cruel.

   harsh decision

6. 6
   verb

   To negatively criticize.

   Quit harshing me already, I said that I was sorry!

7. 7
   verb

   To put a damper on (a mood).

   Dude, you're harshing my buzz.

8. 8
   adj

   sharply disagreeable

Etymology

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.