"harsh rebuke" is a perfectly correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use it to describe a situation in which an authoritative figure has reprimanded or scolded someone severely. For example: "The teacher's harsh rebuke made the student feel embarrassed and ashamed."
Recently, two high-profile lawmakers faced harsh rebuke for discriminatory comments.
But the government's actions have elicited harsh rebuke from on high.
But Mr. Karzai still issued a harsh rebuke to the aid groups in a statement on the eve of the conference.
The American Civil Liberties Union has delivered a harsh rebuke of the Trump administration to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
In announcing the decision, Rick Caruso, the commission president, praised some of the chief's skills and then issued a harsh rebuke, declaring Chief Parks overbearing, arrogant and divisive.
But Kerry also offered an unusually harsh rebuke of Turkish officials who have made a slew of demands and insinuations about the US and the coup.
What did sadden her, Ms. Lorber said, were the harsh rebukes she received from print and Internet journalists who wrote about "The Paper".
When Lowry Mays, its chief executive, testified at the Senate Commerce committee in January, he had to listen to harsh rebukes from the Senators.
Petitioning the church's leadership to alter its policies or theology will not produce the desired results, and protesting the church's actions will most likely elicit harsh rebukes or worse.
"If we can do it peacefully," he said, "why not?" Harsh rebukes like Mr. Rumsfeld's also belie the fact that Mr. Putin's government appears to have taken into account American objections to Russia's recent rounds of diplomacy.
The measure drew harsh rebukes from representatives of the state's powerful utility industry, who said it potentially violated the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution prohibiting states from enacting laws that restrict trade outside their borders.
