harrowings

Noun

harrowing (plural harrowings)

1. The process of breaking up earth with a harrow.
   • The field received two harrowings.
2. Suffering, torment.
3. Ravaging; hostile incursion; spoliation; intentional widespread destruction.
   • Scientists who complain about the helplessness of politicians might consider the desolation in England which followed the harrowing of the north by William the Conqueror or the state of the Palatinate long after the end of the Thirty Years War[.]1956 April, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Chicago, page 122, column 1
   1. Christ's ravaging or hostile incursion of Hell, conducted between his crucifixion and resurrection, in which he liberated the souls of the righteous held captive by Satan.
      • As in other myths, like Christ's harrowing of hell, the initiate descends into the netherworld for the magical three days.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 178

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