harper


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harp

harp

 (härp)
n.
1. Music
a. An instrument having an upright triangular frame consisting of a pillar, a curved neck, and a hollow back containing the sounding board, with usually 46 or 47 strings of graded lengths that are played by plucking with the fingers.
b. Any of various ancient and modern instruments of similar or U-shaped design.
c. Informal A harmonica.
2. Something, such as a pair of vertical supports for a lampshade, that resembles a harp.
intr.v. harped, harp·ing, harps
To play a harp.
Phrasal Verb:
harp on
To talk or write about to an excessive and tedious degree; dwell on.

[Middle English, from Old English hearpe and from Old French harpe, of Germanic origin.]

harp′er n.
harp′ist n.

Har·per

 (här′pər), Stephen Joseph Born 1959.
Canadian politician who served as prime minister (2006-2015).
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Harper

(ˈhɑːpə)
n
(Biography) Stephen (Joseph). Born 1959. Canadian statesman; prime minister from 2006
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.Harper - someone who plays the harpharper - someone who plays the harp    
instrumentalist, musician, player - someone who plays a musical instrument (as a profession)
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in classic literature ?
It follows them from an earlier date and could not easily be changed, and it may serve to recall to an elder generation than this the time when their author was breaking so many lances in the great, forgotten war between Realism and Romanticism that the floor of the "Editor's Study" in Harper's Magazine was strewn with the embattled splinters.
Big jovial Josie Harper ran a road house at Telegraph Avenue and Thirty-ninth Street.
"You're as bad as Harper and Joe Ladue," said Joe Hines.
I tell you-all if that strike comes on Klondike, Harper and Ladue will be millionaires.
NOT long ago, the writer of these lines, In the mad pride of intellectuality, Maintained "the power of words"--denied that ever A thought arose within the human brain Beyond the utterance of the human tongue: And now, as if in mockery of that boast, Two words-two foreign soft dissyllables-- Italian tones, made only to be murmured By angels dreaming in the moonlit "dew That hangs like chains of pearl on Hermon hill,"-- Have stirred from out the abysses of his heart, Unthought-like thoughts that are the souls of thought, Richer, far wider, far diviner visions Than even the seraph harper, Israfel,(Who has "the sweetest voice of all God's creatures") Could hope to utter.
And just at that juncture it happened that Jurgis was introduced to a man named Harper whom he recognized as the night watchman at Brown's, who had been instrumental in making him an American citizen, the first year of his arrival at the yards.
Harper, you have been the soulless Number Thirteen; but to me you will always be Bulan, for it was Bulan whom I learned to love."
We went down the hill and found Jo Harper and Ben Rogers, and two or three more of the boys, hid in the old tanyard.
This bosom friend was Joe Harper. The two boys were sworn friends all the week, and embattled enemies on Saturdays.
The idea of a separation from this affectionate relative, who had proved a mother to her in her infancy, gave great pain to her best feelings; and Julia again internally prayed that the residence of Antonio might not be far distant.-- What the disguise of her lover would be, Julia could not imagine--probably, that of a wandering harper: but then she remembered that there were no harpers in America, and the very singularity might betray his secret.
At the same time, Sydney Brooks, writing in America, in Harper's Weekly, said: "You will not hear the socialists mentioned in Washington.
`So Urania bare Linus, a very lovely son: and him all men who are singers and harpers do bewail at feasts and dances, and as they begin and as they end they call on Linus....'