HARP • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Harp

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/hɑrp/ Listen

noun

Harp n.

1.

A musical instrument consisting of a triangular frame furnished with strings and sometimes with pedals, held upright, and played with the fingers.

2.

(Astron.) A constellation; Lyra, or the Lyre.

3.

A grain sieve. (Scot.)

Aeolian harp. See under Aeolian.

Harp seal (Zool.), an arctic seal (Phoca Groenlandica). The adult males have a light-colored body, with a harp-shaped mark of black on each side, and the face and throat black. Called also saddler, and saddleback. The immature ones are called bluesides; their fur is white, and they are killed and skinned to harvest the fur.

Harp shell (Zool.), a beautiful marine gastropod shell of the genus Harpa, of several species, found in tropical seas. See Harpa.

verb

Harp v. t. To play on, as a harp; to play (a tune) on the harp; to develop or give expression to by skill and art; to sound forth as from a harp; to hit upon. "Thou 'st harped my fear aright."

Harp v. i. (past & past part. harped; pres. part. harping)

1.

To play on the harp. "I heard the voice of harpers, harping with their harps."

2.

To dwell on or recur to a subject tediously or monotonously in speaking or in writing; to refer to something repeatedly or continually; usually with on or upon. "Harpings upon old themes." "Harping on what I am, Not what he knew I was."

To harp on one string, to dwell upon one subject with disagreeable or wearisome persistence. (Colloq.)

See images of 'Harp'

Etymology of 'Harp'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Harp" Quotes from Famous Books

... will conduct them to a hill-side where he will point out to them "the right path of a virtuous and noble education, laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious sounds on every side, that the Harp of Orpheus was not more charming." The rest of the tract is a redemption of this promise. To represent it by mere continued quotation would be of small use, and is perhaps unnecessary. We will, therefore, ...

— The Life of John Milton Vol. 3 1643-1649 • David Masson

... hang my harp upon a tree, A weeping willow in a lake; I hang my silenced harp there, wrung and snapt For ...

— Poems • Christina G. Rossetti

... Princess. He was a person gigantic in stature, and was slain by Suetonius in the battle which terminated the liberties of Britain. From him descended directly the Princes of Pontydwdlm, Mogyn of the Golden Harp (see the Mabinogion of Lady Charlotte Guest,) Bogyn-Merodac-ap-Mogyn, (the black fiend son of Mogyn,) and a long list of bards and warriors, celebrated both in Wales and Armorica. The independent Princes of Mogyn long held out against the ...

— The Book of Snobs • William Makepeace Thackeray

... and you'll hear and feel the far-away roar of the wires. But then the oaks are not connected with the distance, where there might be wind; and they don't ROAR in a gale, only sigh louder and softer according to the wind, and never seem to go above or below a certain pitch,—like a big harp with all the strings the same. I used to have a theory that those creek oaks got the wind's voice telephoned to them, so to speak, through ...

— Joe Wilson and His Mates • Henry Lawson

... glances that sometimes lightened on his face, made him cautious, and restrained his eagerness; while excessive consciousness kept her cheeks dyed with blushes, and her nerves vibrating sweet, wild music, like the strings of some aeolian harp when swept by the ...

— The Missing Bride • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

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