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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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
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The shrew is one of these mammals, according to the study.—
Irene Wright,
Miami Herald,
27 Aug. 2025
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The elephant shrew genus Macroscelides was the sole exception, shifting to omnivory after adopting myrmecophagy during the Eocene.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
ArsTechnica,
20 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Once the jaguar is secure on the floatation device, the rescue vessel carries the exhausted predator along the river — one of the largest tributaries of the Amazon — towards land.—
Moná Thomas,
PEOPLE,
7 Oct. 2025
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These kids may be in the custody of a predator and those cases deserve to be taken seriously.—
Stepheny Price , Peter D'Abrosca,
FOXNews.com,
4 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The scene, which was not in Stephenie Meyer's 2008 book that the movie was adapted from, raised eyebrows for its brutal killings of vampires Carlisle Cullen (Peter Facinelli) and Jasper Hale (Jackson Rathbone), as well as werewolves Seth (Booboo Stewart) and Leah Clearwater (Julia Jones).—
Jen Juneau,
PEOPLE,
2 Oct. 2025
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Joining Francis Ford Coppola's sumptuous Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) is John Badham's Dracula, a decidedly romantic riff on the Transylvanian vampire's macabre tale.—
Randall Colburn,
Entertainment Weekly,
2 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Meanwhile, the Young Bird Photographer of the Year prize was awarded to 16-year-old Tomasz Michalski from Poland, for his striking silhouette of a black vulture.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
30 Sep. 2025
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This configuration produces tilted stroke planes, much like those seen in geese, vultures, and kingfishers during slow flight.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
18 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Harpy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/harpy. Accessed 9 Oct. 2025.
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