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Harpy   Listen
noun
Harpy  n.  (pl. harpies)  
1.
(Gr. Myth.) A fabulous winged monster, ravenous and filthy, having the face of a woman and the body of a vulture, with long claws, and the face pale with hunger. Some writers mention two, others three. "Both table and provisions vanished quite. With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard."
2.
One who is rapacious or ravenous; an extortioner. "The harpies about all pocket the pool."
3.
(Zool.)
(a)
The European moor buzzard or marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus).
(b)
A large and powerful, double-crested, short-winged American eagle (Thrasaetus harpyia). It ranges from Texas to Brazil.
Harpy bat (Zool.)
(a)
An East Indian fruit bat of the genus Harpyia (esp. Harpyia cephalotes), having prominent, tubular nostrils.
(b)
A small, insectivorous Indian bat (Harpiocephalus harpia).
Harpy fly (Zool.), the house fly.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Harpy" Quotes from Famous Books



... year 1729, with Youth, Health, a strong Frame, and a comely Countenance (as they told me), indeed, but with just two Guineas in my pouch for all my Fortune. Many a Lord Mayor of London has begun the World, 'tis said, with a yet more slender Provision (I wonder what Harpy Hopwood had to begin with?) and Eighteenpence would seem to be the average of Capital Stock for an Adventurer that is to heap up Riches. Still I seemed to have made my Start in Life's Voyage a ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 2 of 3 • George Augustus Sala
... for several dates with Sylvia. Out of the office she wasn't quite the protective harpy about Paul Cleary that she had been in the office, although the thought was ...
— The Trouble with Telstar • John Berryman
... his being set adrift in an open boat, with his infant daughter and his books for company, are wrecked through his art upon the island of which he has become the master. Ariel, the spirit who serves Prospero, a mysterious, ever changing form, now fire, now a Nymph, now an invisible musician, now a Harpy, striking guilt into the conscience (and yet apparently not interested in either vice or virtue, but {206} longing only for free idleness), guides all to Prospero's cave, and receives freedom for ...
— An Introduction to Shakespeare • H. N. MacCracken
... winter apple was to leave a shaky tooth behind) obligingly took the first bite, but made that bite include nearly half the apple—that rapacious betrayer of confiding helplessness deserved to be called a harpy. But she wasn't; she was ...
— The Madigans • Miriam Michelson
... and winged. So HESIOD drew The legendary Harpy crew, The "Spoilers" of old fable; Maidens, yet monsters, woman-faced, With iron hearts that had disgraced ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 102, May 14, 1892 • Various


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