1
as in shrew
a bad-tempered scolding woman
in fairy tales stepmothers are often portrayed as harpies who make the lives of their stepchildren miserable
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2
as in predator
a person who habitually preys upon others
having just started to make it really big in the music business, he found himself surrounded by a flock of harpies greedy for a piece of the action
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of harpy
Others portrayed her as a harpy, a notoriously disagreeable mythical beast that was half bird-of-prey, half woman.
—
The Economist, 9 Nov. 2019
The clergy and royal courts in days of yore used images of griffins, hellmouths, harpies, dragons and sea swine to instill fear, to divide anxious populations, to assert dominance and control, and to ostracize non-Europeans.
—Steven Litt, cleveland.com, 1 Sep. 2019
Elizabeth Moss, as Claire, has based her career playing sad-sacks and harpies, in Mad Men, The Square, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Her Smell; so Moss is a comic actress by default.
—Armond White, National Review, 9 Aug. 2019
Those kinds of sentiments have multiplied on social media, which has exploded with memes in recent days calling the four everything from terrorists to harpies to cancer.
—Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times, 27 July 2019
See All Example Sentences for harpy
The Economist, 9 Nov. 2019
The clergy and royal courts in days of yore used images of griffins, hellmouths, harpies, dragons and sea swine to instill fear, to divide anxious populations, to assert dominance and control, and to ostracize non-Europeans.
—Steven Litt, cleveland.com, 1 Sep. 2019
Elizabeth Moss, as Claire, has based her career playing sad-sacks and harpies, in Mad Men, The Square, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Her Smell; so Moss is a comic actress by default.
—Armond White, National Review, 9 Aug. 2019
Those kinds of sentiments have multiplied on social media, which has exploded with memes in recent days calling the four everything from terrorists to harpies to cancer.
—Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times, 27 July 2019
See All Example Sentences for harpy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for harpy
Noun
-
Especially early on in the campaign, when I was being attacked as being angry, a shrew, demeaning my husband — all these labels were coming in on me that were essentially trying to rob me of that femininity.—
Janine Rubenstein,
PEOPLE,
28 Oct. 2025
-
The 2025 list of extinctions includes a bird, a shrew and a species of snail, among others.—
Doyle Rice,
USA Today,
18 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Dek is the weakest link in his warrior family, and the arrival of their father cements that fact; there is no sentimentality here as the elder predator orders Kwei to kill his brother and be done with him.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
4 Nov. 2025
-
Things kick off with a bit of inter-family strife, involving a young predator named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi).—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
4 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Popping into a camp full of allies newly wary of the 428-year-old vampire in their midst, Regis begins by clearing up the misconception that he can be repelled by garlic, then drops a line about Jaskier’s blood smelling good.—
Scott Meslow,
Vulture,
30 Oct. 2025
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When a young woman (Michie Tomizawa) becomes the target of a powerful vampire lord, Count Lee (Seizô Katô) — first in a ruthless countryside attack, later an abduction — D takes it upon himself to save her.—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
30 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
That could be way too reactionary and dramatic, but the vultures and sharks in this league are headed there with this situation.—
Zach Harper,
New York Times,
3 Nov. 2025
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In total, the Ventana Wildlife Society — a group that traps, breeds and rehabilitates the vultures for release into the wild — has tracked 30 different condors that took multiple trips to parts of Alameda and Contra Costa counties sometime in the past two years.—
Kyle Martin,
Mercury News,
21 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Harpy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/harpy. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
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