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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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for harpy
Noun
  • The shrew is one of these mammals, according to the study.
    Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 27 Aug. 2025
  • 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
  • Liverpool are simply higher up the food chain — although the apex predator remains Real Madrid, who captured Trent Alexander-Arnold from Anfield earlier in the summer.
    Oliver Kay, New York Times, 4 Sep. 2025
  • When the creature eventually gets munched on by a bigger fish, the concentration of DDT in the new predator's bloodstream only heightens.
    Sophie Hartley, IndyStar, 3 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • All 500-year-old vampires will be able to watch Talamasca on their television sets in linear fashion on AMC.
    Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2025
  • In the two minute trailer (below), the death of someone close to a secret society charged with monitoring the world’s immortals, including witches and vampires, prompts the group to seek out a new recruit in the form of a young unsuspecting man, Guy Anatole (Nicholas Denton).
    Abbey White, HollywoodReporter, 4 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • The town serves as the backdrop for what many surrounding the production consider the creative high point of the season — an episode 5 spaghetti western side mission that involves lepers, eye-gauging vultures, and a train pulled by zombies.
    Dalton Ross, EW.com, 26 Aug. 2025
  • Lawmakers need to close the loopholes now before the vultures pick it clean.
    Adam Kovacevich, Oc Register, 18 Aug. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Harpy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/harpy. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.

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