harshly

Etymology

From harsh +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑːʃli/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adverb

harshly (comparative harshlier or more harshly, superlative harshliest or most harshly)

1. In a harsh manner; severely.
   • 1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto I, stanza 193:

     Yet, if I name my guilt, 't is not to boast, / None can deem harshlier of me than I deem [...].

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXI, page 35:

     The traveller hears me now and then,
     ⁠And sometimes harshly will he speak:
     ⁠‘This fellow would make weakness weak,
     And melt the waxen hearts of men.’

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.

   • 1968, Paul Ritchie, Confessions of a People Lover: A Novel - Page 51:

     Oh, those cruel and blitheless asses! Did they know my thoughts, my dreams, as I searched the sweet mystery of myself for the hidden meaning of my life? They did not. They judged me harshly for a few paltry actions.