The Only Use of
harrowing
in
The Phantom Tollbooth
- 'All that he would have to do," continued the worried bug, "is travel through miles of harrowing and hazardous countryside, into unknown valleys and uncharted forests, past yawning chasms and trackless wastes, until he reached Digitopolis (if, of course, he ever reached there).†
p. 96.8
Definitions:
-
(1)
(harrowing as in: a harrowing story) frightening or unsettling
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Much more rarely, harrowing can mean breaking apart soil on a farm. Even more rarely (and archaically), it can mean harrying or harassing as in: "We are harrowing their army as they advance northward."