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
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
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
See All Example Sentences for harpy
Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times, 27 July 2019
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
See All Example Sentences for harpy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for harpy
Noun
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And the team has since published the complete genomic coding sequences for the new virus – Gainesville shrew mammalian orthoreovirus type 3 strain UF-1.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
14 July 2025
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For the study, researchers looked at 1,376 vertebrate species known to eat some amount of carrion, ranging from tiger sharks and spotted hyenas to cane toads and common shrews.—
Sarah Kuta,
Smithsonian Magazine,
18 June 2025
Noun
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Roblox — The stock dropped more than 7% after Louisiana's attorney general sued the video game company for allegedly enabling child predators on its platform.—
Scott Schnipper,
CNBC,
15 Aug. 2025
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Mississippi’s attorneys say the law is a targeted effort to regulate social media platforms that let predators interact with children.—
Maureen Groppe,
USA Today,
14 Aug. 2025
Noun
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In Memoriam looks at these vampires and how they’ve been thrust into the limelight due to the Gehenna War.—
Rob Wieland,
Forbes.com,
28 July 2025
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The temporary crowns did look oddly artificial—like the plastic vampire teeth that children wear, except more elegant.—
Burkhard Bilger,
New Yorker,
28 July 2025
Noun
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Tying the vulture's feathers to a pregnant woman's legs was also said to help speed up labor.—
Andrea Margolis,
FOXNews.com,
10 Aug. 2025
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Jena’s husband wanted to leave her body to the vultures.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
8 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Harpy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/harpy. Accessed 20 Aug. 2025.
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