harsh
ungentle and unpleasant in action or effect: harsh treatment; harsh manners.
grim or unpleasantly severe; stern; cruel; austere: a harsh life; a harsh master.
physically uncomfortable; desolate; stark: a harsh land.
unpleasant to the ear; grating; strident: a harsh voice; a harsh sound.
unpleasantly rough, ragged, or coarse to the touch: a harsh surface.
jarring to the eye or to the esthetic sense; unrefined; crude; raw: harsh colors.
unpleasant to the taste or sense of smell; bitter; acrid: a harsh flavor; a harsh odor.
Origin of harsh
1synonym study For harsh
Other words for harsh
2 | brusque, hard, unfeeling, unkind, brutal, acrimonious, bad-tempered |
3 | rough |
4 | discordant, dissonant, unharmonious |
6 | unesthetic |
Other words from harsh
- harshly, adverb
- harshness, noun
- o·ver·harsh, adjective
- o·ver·harsh·ly, adverb
- o·ver·harsh·ness, noun
- un·harsh, adjective
- un·harsh·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use harsh in a sentence
Julio Cardenas, 25 and an MC from the group RCA, was older but with a youthful smile that hid the harsher sides of Cuban life.
Imagine how much harsher that joke would sound coming from someone who sets out to shock, like Sarah Silverman.
Jenny Slate’s Earnest and Funny Abortion Film ‘Obvious Child’ | Caryn James | June 4, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTTheir proposal is relatively mild only because they know nothing harsher would see the light of day in the Senate.
So will the grandmother-to-be inspire female voters next cycle, or will they judge her on a harsher scale?
The world of The Walking Dead is a harsher place than that and its characters will suffer a lot more than Brad Pitt ever did.
What ‘The Walking Dead’ Can Learn From ‘World War Z’ | Melissa Leon | February 7, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
In the present case, both this and is are unaccented, which is much harsher than when this bears an accent.
Chaucer's Works, Volume 1 (of 7) -- Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems | Geoffrey ChaucerUnder the latter he was deprived of his preferment in Oxford, and under a harsher rule might have incurred yet graver penalties.
The English Church in the Eighteenth Century | Charles J. Abbey and John H. OvertonThis is the more significant in that the Central Authority, in one case at least, had tried a harsher expedient.
English Poor Law Policy | Sidney WebbShe had been a model as a child, with blurred memories of older and harsher beings about her who had long since faded away.
The Woman Gives | Owen JohnsonCalavius was furious and paused, as if to give orders for harsher repression.
The Lion's Brood | Duffield Osborne
British Dictionary definitions for harsh
/ (hɑːʃ) /
rough or grating to the senses
stern, severe, or cruel
(tr) slang to cause (a state of elation) to be diminished or ended (esp in the phrases harsh someone's mellow and harsh someone's buzz)
Origin of harsh
1Derived forms of harsh
- harshly, adverb
- harshness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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