harrow
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also Harrow
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA: /ˈhaɹəʊ/, SAMPA: /h{r@U/
- (US) IPA: /ˈhæɹoʊ/, SAMPA: /h{roU/
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Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ærəʊ
[edit] Etymology 1
Either representing unattested Old English *hearwe or *hearġe (perhaps ultimately cognate with harvest), or from Old Norse harfr/herfi[1]; compare Danish harve (“harrow”), Dutch hark (“rake”). Akin to Latin carpere.
[edit] Noun
harrow (plural harrows)
- 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.
- 1918, Louise & Aylmer Maude, trans. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Oxford 1998, p. 153:
- 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.
- 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter X:
- “It may be fun for her,” I said with one of my bitter laughs, “but it isn't so diverting for the unfortunate toads beneath the harrow whom she plunges so ruthlessly in the soup.”
- 1969, Bessie Head, When Rain Clouds Gather, Heinemann 1995, p. 28:
- Part of your job would be to learn tractor ploughing and the use of planters, harrows, and cultivators.
- 1918, Louise & Aylmer Maude, trans. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Oxford 1998, p. 153:
[edit] Translations
device
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[edit] See also
[edit] Verb
harrow (third-person singular simple present harrows, present participle harrowing, simple past and past participle harrowed)
- To drag a harrow over; to break up with a harrow.
- 1719- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- When the corn was sown, I had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch it, as it may be called, rather than rake or harrow it.
- 1719- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- To traumatize or disturb; to frighten or torment.
- The headless horseman harrowed Ichabod Crane as he tried to reach the bridge.
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Translations
drag a harrow over
traumatise, frighten
[edit] Etymology 2
From Old French haro, harou, of uncertain origin.
[edit] Interjection
harrow
- (obsolete) A call for help, or of distress, alarm etc.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi:
- Harrow, the flames, which me consume (said hee) / Ne can be quencht, within my secret bowels bee.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi:
