[
US
/ˈhɑɹʃnəs/
]
[ UK /hˈɑːʃnəs/ ]
[ UK /hˈɑːʃnəs/ ]
NOUN
-
excessive sternness
the rigors of boot camp
severity of character
the harshness of his punishment was inhuman - the roughness of a substance that causes abrasions
- the quality of being harsh or rough or grating to the senses
- the quality of being cruel and causing tension or annoyance
How To Use harshness In A Sentence
- But army hard-liners, led by Mr. Ioannidis, staged a successful countercoup on Nov. 25, 1973, and ruled Greece with increasing harshness and incompetence for the next eight months. Dimitrios Ioannidis, 87, dies; former Greece security chief led countercoup
- And both mouths, while generously proportioned, carried the impression of girlish sweetness and chastity along with the muscles that could draw the lips to the firmness and harshness that would not give the lie to the square, uncleft chins beneath. CHAPTER IX
- It is not hard to see why local boy Steinbeck loved this place despite his depiction of the harshness meted out to some.
- Smiles," began Judd, with all the harshness gone from his voice, "I don't enjoy fer ter hear yo 'sigh thet erway, er ter see ther fur-off look in yo'r purty eyes, 'cause I fears thet hit means thar's some one else then me in yo'r heart. 'Smiles' A Rose of the Cumberlands
- They sought solace in religion from the harshness of their everyday lives.
- It was apparently his principal endeavour to avoid all harshness and severity of diction; he is therefore sometimes verbose in his transitions and connections, and sometimes descends too much to the language of conversation; yet if his language had been less idiomatical, it might have lost somewhat of its genuine Anglicism. Life of Addison, 1672-1719
- spoke with unmoderated harshness
- This provides a smooth ride that absorbs a lot of the harshness of uneven road surfaces.
- The journey back wasn't half as bad as the one up and soon the harshness of the landscape was gentled with green.
- He notes that he looked "to those twelve Caesars so mistreated by Suetonius," in the hope of emulating the best of each: "the clear-sightedness of Tiberius, without his harshness; the learning of Claudius without his weakness; Nero's taste for the arts, but stripped of all foolish vanity; the kindness of Titus, stopping short of his sentimentality; Vespasian's thrift, but not his absurd miserliness. Portrait of Power Embodied in a Roman Emperor
