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
This is her name for the seventh circle of hell from Dante’s Inferno, where the souls of those who’ve committed suicide become trees, and harpies peck at them for all eternity.
—
Sara Holdren, Vulture, 21 Nov. 2023
Karen is, of course, the generic name for the ubiquitous American harpy who, through the long summer of 2020, pitched fits about masks and sometimes about race, in public spaces.
—Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 18 Aug. 2020
Others portrayed her as a harpy, a notoriously disagreeable mythical beast that was half bird-of-prey, half woman.
—The Economist, 9 Nov. 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
Sara Holdren, Vulture, 21 Nov. 2023
Karen is, of course, the generic name for the ubiquitous American harpy who, through the long summer of 2020, pitched fits about masks and sometimes about race, in public spaces.
—Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 18 Aug. 2020
Others portrayed her as a harpy, a notoriously disagreeable mythical beast that was half bird-of-prey, half woman.
—The Economist, 9 Nov. 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
-
See page 8 to order a shrew for $29, plus shipping and handling.—
Jeff Wilson,
Outdoor Life,
11 Mar. 2026
-
Because for the most part, Caroline comes off as a rigid uptight shrew.—
Lisa DePaulo,
HollywoodReporter,
27 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Was this how a predator self-vanishes?—
Chang-rae Lee,
New Yorker,
3 May 2026
-
And always the Ryce family was there, front and center, holding each other up, in a national crusade to protect children from predators.—
Amy Driscoll,
Miami Herald,
3 May 2026
Noun
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Beyond that, non-phantom, non-Dracula vampires aren’t terribly over-exposed in the Broadway genre.—
Chris Jones,
Chicago Tribune,
27 Apr. 2026
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Mariclare Costello, a lifetime member of The Actors Studio who recurred as the schoolteacher Rosemary Hunter on The Waltons and played a hippie vampire in the cult horror film Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, died April 17 in Brooklyn, her family announced.—
Mike Barnes,
HollywoodReporter,
27 Apr. 2026
Noun
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In some cases, however, those vultures circling the air over yesterday’s gallerias, plazas and megamalls are actually vulture investors.—
The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
1 May 2026
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The moral injury from which hip-hop could not heal, in his mind, was the incursion of capitalism, the selling out, the culture-vulture turn that Bambaataa spoke to and spoke to freely.—
Doreen St. Félix,
New Yorker,
25 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Harpy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/harpy. Accessed 9 May. 2026.
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