Harshly criticize second hit (4)
I believe the answer is:
slam
'harshly criticize' is the definition.
'slam' can be an answer for 'criticize' (thesaurus). I am not certain of the 'harshly' bit.
'second hit' is the wordplay.
'second' becomes 's' (common abbreviation).
'hit' becomes 'lam' (to 'lam' means to hit hard**).
's'+'lam'='SLAM'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for slam that I've seen before include "(Almost) all the tricks" , "Close noisily" , "Report of forcefully closing" , "Winning of 12 or 13 tricks at bridge" , "Winning all (or all but one) of the tricks in bridge" .)