Etymology

Noun

1. A device consisting of a heavy framework having several disks or teeth in a row, which is dragged across ploughed land to smooth or break up the soil, to remove weeds or cover seeds; a harrow plow.
   • 1918, Louise & Aylmer Maude, trans. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Oxford 1998, p. 153:

     He sent for the carpenter, who was under contract to be with the threshing-machine, but it turned out that he was mending the harrows, which should have been mended the week before Lent.

   • 1969, Bessie Head, When Rain Clouds Gather, Heinemann 1995, p. 28:

     Part of your job would be to learn tractor ploughing and the use of planters, harrows, and cultivators.

Verb

1. To drag a harrow over; to break up with a harrow.
   • 1719- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     When the corn was sown, I had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch it, as it may be called, rather than rake or harrow it.

2. To traumatize or disturb; to frighten or torment.

   The headless horseman harrowed Ichabod Crane as he tried to reach the bridge.