Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Harpy

Har′py (här′py̆), n.; pl. Harpies (-pĭz). [F. harpie, L. harpyia, Gr. ἅρπυια, from the root of ἁρπάζειν to snatch, to seize. Cf. Rapacious.] 1. (Gr. Myth.) A fabulous winged monster, ravenous and filthy, having the face of a woman and the body of a vulture, with long claws, and the face pale with hunger. Some writers mention two, others three.

Both table and provisions vanished quite. With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard. Milton.

2. One who is rapacious or ravenous; an extortioner.

The harpies about all pocket the pool. Goldsmith.

3. (Zoöl.) (a) The European moor buzzard or marsh harrier (Circus æruginosus). (b) A large and powerful, double-crested, short-winged American eagle (Thrasaëtus harpyia). It ranges from Texas to Brazil.

Harpy bat (Zoöl.) (a) An East Indian fruit bat of the genus Harpyia (esp. H. cephalotes), having prominent, tubular nostrils. (b) A small, insectivorous Indian bat (Harpiocephalus harpia). — Harpy fly (Zoöl.), the house fly.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.