Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HARSH'NESS, n.

1. Roughness to the touch; opposed to softness and smoothness.
2. Sourness; austereness; as, the harshness of fruit.
3. Roughness to the ear; as, the harshness of sound or of a voice, or of verse. 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offense, / The sound must seem an echo to the sense. – Pope.
4. Roughness of temper; moroseness; crabbedness; peevishness. – Shak.
5. Roughness in manner or words; severity; as, the harshness of reproof.