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harrow

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An agricultural implement with iron teeth or tines dragged over ploughed land to break up clods and level the surface for seeding.

Detailed Definition
Harrow derives from Old Norse "herfi" and describes the frame set with spikes or discs that is dragged across ploughed ground to break up lumps, cover seeds, and create a fine tilth suitable for germination. In poetry harrow functions both literally and metaphorically: to harrow is also to cause distress or torment, and "harrowing" has survived into common use as an adjective meaning deeply distressing. The "Harrowing of Hell" in medieval Christian theology—Christ's descent to release the souls of the righteous—draws on this agricultural violence as an image of redemptive disruption. Poets exploit this etymological connection to link agricultural cultivation with spiritual or emotional ordeal, suggesting that breaking up hardened ground, whether literal or figurative, is a necessary prelude to new growth.
Example
Example in poetry:
The harrowing of hell — Christ's descent to release the righteous dead — draws on the agricultural implement's action of breaking up and exposing what lay hidden in the earth, connecting the harrow to themes of redemption and revelation; Piers Plowman, the great medieval allegorical poem, uses both the literal harrow of the field and the Harrowing of Hell, the two meanings reinforcing each other as images of breaking-up and liberation; A poet might write "the harrow went over the clods with iron patience, breaking what the plough had turned, making the rough places plain, preparing the ground for something small and certain"; The modern use of "harrowing" as an adjective meaning deeply distressing preserves the implement's action as a metaphor for experience that breaks up settled emotional ground, that exposes what was buried and breaks it into pieces; Virgil's Georgics describe the harrow's work with technical precision, establishing the tradition of treating agricultural implements as worthy of poetic attention — the harrow as significant as the sword in the poetry of a civilization built on farming; In poems about creative and intellectual preparation, the harrow serves as an image of the necessary rough work that precedes the planting of ideas — the breaking up of preconceptions and received ideas before new thought can take root.
Additional Notes
Harrow is valuable for the etymological connection between the agricultural implement and the modern adjective "harrowing" (deeply distressing), which students often encounter without knowing its agricultural origin. The connection is direct: to harrow is to break up and expose what the plough has turned, and the experience that "harrows" us breaks up our settled emotional ground and exposes what we have buried. Students should trace this metaphorical development explicitly in their analytical writing. The Harrowing of Hell — Christ's descent after the Crucifixion to release the righteous dead — uses the agricultural implement as its central image: Christ breaks open the earth of hell as the harrow breaks open the clods of the field, liberating what was imprisoned beneath. This theological use is central to Piers Plowman and to the medieval mystery play tradition, and students of medieval literature should be thoroughly familiar with it. The specific design of different harrows (spike harrow, chain harrow, disc harrow) has changed considerably over time but the essential function — breaking and leveling — has remained constant. Related terms: ploughshare, coulter, furrow, tilth, tillage.
Other Meanings of “harrow”
Also Known As
drag rake cultivator tine-harrow
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