harp

plural harps

1. entertainmentA musical instrument consisting of a body and a curved neck, strung with strings of varying length that are stroked or plucked with the fingers and are vertical to the soundboard when viewed from the end of the body

   The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge

   1568, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton, edited by J[ohn] S[tow], Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, →OCLC, page 290

   1. entertainmentAny instrument of the same musicological type.
2. Any musical instrument.
   1. colloquialentertainmentA harmonica.
   2. colloquialentertainmentA struck tuned percussion instrument of metal or wooden bars, especially as a function of a theatre organ.
3. ScotlandA grain sieve.
4. The component of a lamp to which one attaches the lampshade, consisting of a lightweight frame that usually surrounds the bulb with an attachment at the top for the finial.

   Both types of harp have a swiveling shade holder at the top. The threaded stud on the swivel accepts the finial.

   1991, Kalton C. Lahue, Cheryl Smith, Interior Lighting, page 104

   1 more example

   Contains charts and instructions for wiring. Shows sockets, wire, harps, glass chimneys and globes, shade holders, bases, finials, and hundreds of items necessary in the building of lamps.

   1960, School Shop, volume 20, page 36

5. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of harp seal.

   More likely, it was the prospect of meat. Curwen was by now craving a juicy roast – 'even seal chop' – and was always loosing off at tickleasses and harps.

   2006, John Gimlette, Theatre of Fish: Travels Through Newfoundland and Labrador, page 225

present singular third person harps · participle present harping · participle past harped · past harped

1. derogatoryusuallywith onTo repeatedly mention a subject, especially so as to nag or complain.

   Why do you harp on a single small mistake?

   2 more examples

   Why do you harp on about a single small mistake?

   On his part, however, he keeps harping on that arbitration case of his, and the other matters which I knew very well before you left Rome were causing him offence.

   1920, Cicero, translated by Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh, The Letters of Cicero: The Whole Extant Correspondence in Chronological Order, volume 1 (hardcover), London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., page 9

2. transitiveTo play on (a harp or similar instrument).
3. transitiveTo play (a tune) on the harp.
4. archaictransitiveTo develop or give expression to by skill and art; to sound forth as from a harp; to hit upon.

   Thou harped my fear aright.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]

1. A surname originating as an occupation for a player of the harp.