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Rough; disagreeable; grating; esp.:(a) To the touch."Harsh sand." Boyle. (b) To the taste. "Berries harsh and crude." Milton. (c) To the ear. "Harsh din." Milton.

In a harsh manner; gratingly; roughly; rudely. 'T will sound harshly in her ears. Shak.

The quality or state of being harsh. O, she is Ten times more gentle than her father 's crabbed, And he's composed of harshness. Shak. 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offense, The sound must seem an echo to the sense. Pope.

Sour, bitter, and harsh to the taste, as unripe fruit; sharp and harsh.

Sourness and harshness. [Obs.] Bailey.

Harshness, bitterness, or severity; as, acerbity of temper, of language, of pain. Barrow.

Sharp and harsh, or bitter and not, to the taste; pungent; as, acrid salts.

A quality of bodies which corrodes or destroys others; also, a harsh or biting sharpness; as, the acrimony of the juices of certain plants. [Archaic] Bacon.

Despotic; absolute in power; bound by no law; harsh and unforbearing; tyrannical; as, an arbitrary prince or government. Dryden. Arbitrary constant, Arbitrary function (Math.), a quantity of function that is introduced into the solution of a problem, and to which any value or form may at will be given, so that the solu…

Rough; rugged; harsh; bitter; stern; fierce. [Archaic] "An asper sound." Bacon.

Roughness or harshness of sound; that quality which grates upon the ear; raucity.

quadruped of the genus Equus (E. asinus), smaller than the horse, and having a peculiarly harsh bray and long ears. The tame or domestic ass is patient, slow, and sure-footed, and has become the type of obstinacy and stupidity. There are several species of wild asses which are swift-footed.

Harshness or astringent sourness to the taste; acerbity. Johnson.

Sourness and harshness to the taste. [Obs.] Horsley.

Characterized by sharpness, severity, or cruelty; harsh; stern; virulent; as, bitter reproach. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Col. iii. 19.

To sound loudly and somewhat harshly. "The trumpet blared." Tennyson.

ing, as a calf; bawling; brawling; clamoring; disagreeably clamorous; sounding loudly and harshly. "Harsh and blatant tone." R. H. Dana. A monster, which the blatant beast men call. Spenser. Glory, that blatant word, which haunts some military minds like the bray of the trumpet. W. Irving.

To utter a loud, harsh cry, as an ass. Laugh, and they Return it louder than an ass can bray. Dryden.

Making a harsh noise; blaring. "Braying trumpets." Shak.

Sounding harsh and loud, like resounding brass.