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Glite Dictionary
harsh winter

harsh winter

5 3.0
A very cold winter that causes damage and problems
  • noun
  • /hɑrʃ ˈwɪntər/
  • UK
translation icon : invierno severo
  • We're about to go into a very harsh winter and in that harsh winter, energy prices are going to be sky high.
  • harsh winter weather
  • the cold harsh winter

Examples

  • Yet what I didn't tell you was that it was one of the harshest winters Ireland had ever seen.

    Blog text (3)

  • The harsh winter would soon hound her, and she had no way to ward off its bite.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • One year there was a long and harsh winter.

    Lycan Colony (2006)

  • Maybe the US is in for another harsh winter similar to the last one...

    Blog text (25)

  • By fall, they were fully prepared for a harsh winter.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • For those men and women who live in areas hit by harsh winters, thermal underwear is a must.

    Blog text (18)

  • Unlike their southern counterparts, settlers there had to deal with harsh winters, rocky soils, and high mortality rates during the initial years.

    Academic text (2014)

  • We lived at first in a tent, then in a salvaged aluminum trailer, waiting for Vermont's harsh winter to pass so we could begin to build a more substantial wooden home.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Such cultural-ecological disturbances included extremely harsh winters, failed harvests, and the return of 250,000 men looking for farm work after the Napoleonic Wars.

    Academic text (1999)

  • The settlers almost all perished during the harsh winter that followed.

Antonyms

mild
75 1.0

Weather that is not very cold or hot and feels pleasant

How Harsh

harsh winter
  • UK
5 3.0
mildness
1.8

Surface Forms

harsh winter singular
harsh winters plural

Morphology

harsh + winter

The meaning 'a very cold and severe winter' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'harsh' (severe, demanding) with 'winter' (the cold season); there is no idiomatic shift. This adjective+noun composition is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English semantics, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the phrase.

Etymology

Harsh winter paints a picture of a harsh winter with heavy snow, strong wind and frozen fields that break plants and make life hard. Because the season is literally 'harsh' in that picture, the term now means 'very cold and severe' and often brings 'hardship'.