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Harsh vs Harass - What's the difference?

harsh | harass |

As verbs the difference between harsh and harass

is that harsh is to negatively criticize while harass is to fatigue or to tire with repeated and exhausting efforts.

As an adjective harsh

is unpleasantly rough to the touch or other senses.

As a noun harass is

devastation; waste.

harsh

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Unpleasantly rough to the touch or other senses.
  • Severe or cruel.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=November 5 , author=Phil Dawkes , title=QPR 2 - 3 Man City , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Great news for City, but the result was harsh on Neil Warnock's side who gave as good as they got even though the odds were stacked against them.}}

    Antonyms

    * genteel

    Verb

    (es)
  • (slang) To negatively criticize.
  • Quit harshing me already, I said that I was sorry!
  • *
  • *
  • (slang) to put a damper on (a mood).
  • Dude, you're harshing my buzz.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • Synonyms

    * rough

    Derived terms

    * harshly * harshness

    harass

    English

    Verb

    (es)
  • To fatigue or to tire with repeated and exhausting efforts.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or
  • To annoy endlessly or systematically; to molest.
  • * 1877 , (Anna Sewell), (Black Beauty) Chapter 23[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Black_Beauty/23]
  • In my old home, I always knew that John and my master were my friends; but here, although in many ways I was well treated, I had no friend. York might have known, and very likely did know, how that rein harassed me; but I suppose he took it as a matter of course that could not be helped; at any rate nothing was done to relieve me.
  • To put excessive burdens upon; to subject to anxieties.
  • in the early 1940s.

    Synonyms

    * hassle * harry * chivy or chivvy * chevy or chevvy * beset * plague * molest * provoke

    Derived terms

    * harasser * harassment

    Noun

  • (obsolete) devastation; waste
  • (Milton)
  • (obsolete) worry; harassment
  • (Byron)