Adjective

(en adjective)

Causing pain or distress.

* 2006 , , Concrete: Killer Smile , Dark Horse Books, cover text

Harrowing journeys down the dark roads of anger, violence, and madness

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-01

, author=Brian Hayes , title=Father of Fractals , volume=101, issue=1, page=62 , magazine= citation , passage=Toward the end of the war, Benoit was sent off on his own with forged papers; he wound up working as a horse groom at a chalet in the Loire valley. Mandelbrot describes this harrowing youth with great sangfroid.}}

Adjective

(-)

Of or pertaining to a cataclysm; causing great destruction or upheaval; catastrophic.

It is believed that a cataclysmic impact caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

* 2005 , , My Women

That’s why to be rejected in love was so cataclysmic : one had been judged and found wanting.