What's the difference between curmudgeon and harpy?

Curmudgeon


Definition:

  • (n.) An avaricious, grasping fellow; a miser; a niggard; a churl.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It may seem curmudgeonly to sprinkle our meagre daily measure of praise upon the negation of something: the fact that a plan is not going ahead.
  • (2) " But Lindsay was also a curmudgeon, and he could be very difficult at times.
  • (3) Riva is not being curmudgeonly (well, not much), but it is easy to forget that she is not playing at being an octogenarian.
  • (4) The old curmudgeon might have to admit that his boy did pretty well here.
  • (5) Which is why every family should have at least one … Facebook Twitter Pinterest Placator or Curmudgeon?
  • (6) Any English speaker who has tried to tell (or fully understand) a joke in France will know the problem – just as some ancient Romans were well aware that the conquered Germans had different rules of laughter from their own ("The Germans don't laugh at vice", as one curmudgeonly Roman critic observed).
  • (7) The film has made converts of even the most curmudgeonly critics, grossing more than $531m (£327m) worldwide in its first four weeks.
  • (8) However, only the most curmudgeonly would deny that bouquets are due in particular to those who do not normally share the limelight, namely, the engineers, construction workers, architects and others who, in five years, have physically performed a modern miracle .
  • (9) A new Father of the Bride movie will see Steve Martin's curmudgeonly dad planning the upcoming nuptials of his gay son, according to reports on nikkifinke.com .
  • (10) Without appearing a curmudgeon, I worry that such kindness could be a thing of the past.
  • (11) "He had no education but was a very intelligent man, a great walker and birder, a curmudgeonly leftwing atheist who even back then wasn't homophobic or racist.
  • (12) We've grown so used to our curmudgeonly fictional coppers, whether in books or on screen, that it's easy to forget that Beck is the prototype for practically every portrayal of a policeman ever since, in this country, or America, or continental Europe.
  • (13) Now, that is no doubt all very exciting for texting tweenagers, and I don't want to come across here as a linguistically conservative, humourless and miserable curmudgeon.
  • (14) The Curmudgeon Moans and has a great line in sarcasm.
  • (15) Twain's cult of personality – as lecturer and novelist, commentator and social critic, travel and humour writer, gadfly and avuncular curmudgeon – was carefully judged, his folksy humour natural, but strategically deployed.
  • (16) The organisers call the picture a manifesto and, looking at it, it becomes easier to see the, at first rather surprising, affinity the curmudgeonly bachelor discovered in this world of girliness and frills.
  • (17) The veteran actor Timothy West has also joined the show as Carter's father Stan, a curmudgeonly and opinionated former Billingsgate fishmonger.
  • (18) Meanwhile, Woody Allen continues to make movies, Bill Murray is a loveable but curmudgeonly old fella’ and Terry Richardson is a feted photographer.
  • (19) Even the most Friends-phobic curmudgeon has to admit that 10 years' toil on a popular sitcom will have honed Jennifer Aniston's comic chops.
  • (20) A club of such means does not usually inspire fondness from neutrals, but only a curmudgeon could fail to appreciate the accomplishment of City.

Harpy


Definition:

  • (n.) 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.
  • (n.) One who is rapacious or ravenous; an extortioner.
  • (n.) The European moor buzzard or marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus).
  • (n.) A large and powerful, double-crested, short-winged American eagle (Thrasaetus harpyia). It ranges from Texas to Brazil.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Whatever else Valérie Trierweiler has been portrayed as – vengeful harpy, ambitious meddler, undignified ex – she is also a woman who has had her heart broken.
  • (2) British feminists being as niggardly in the Sun 's respect as they are about subsidising lap-dancing clubs, visiting Formula One brothels and subscribing to the late men's magazine, Nuts , a periodical brought to its knees by jealous harpies.
  • (3) "Everything has declined, especially big mammals, there used to be harpy eagles flying in the sky, sloths hanging from trees, but oil exploration is killing the rainforest.
  • (4) By failing to confront our ghouls – and their tabloid harpies – we merely let them haunt us again.
  • (5) I’ve said a lot of shit in my life – and you can certainly quote me on the record using that word – but I would never suggest anything like that.” Things Erickson has suggested include the notion that “Obama’s marxist harpy wife would go Lorena Bobbitt on him” – Bobbitt was a Virginia woman who in 1993 cut off her husband’s penis – should he even think about it”.
  • (6) They hand out an humorous flyers to the public, congratulating men on successfully keeping "harpies and gossips" out of their ranks and maintaining all power within their wonderfully firm male grasp.
  • (7) In person, Brick is relaxed and delightful company – nothing like the arrogant harpy I'd been led to expect.
  • (8) Or rather, she was a sort of ultra-acerbic clown: an outlandishly dressed and painted pixie-harpy, who said whatever she liked.
  • (9) Enter Parsifal, a "pure fool" and Christ-like redeemer figure, who alone can resist the lure of Klingsor's harpies, restore the spear to the knights, cure Amfortas and give Klingsor's arch-temptress Kundry the release from earthly life she so ardently desires.
  • (10) Forget Donald Trump – Megyn Kelly won the Republican debate Read more Erickson himself, however, has a long history of making disparaging remarks about women, including calling first lady Michelle Obama a “marxist harpy” and Texas politician Wendy Davis “abortion Barbie”.
  • (11) Elle Fanning is that scheming harpy, Princess Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty.
  • (12) She has been pilloried as the scorned woman and the vindictive harpy.
  • (13) The mood swings were back with a vengeance – plunging me into unplumbable depths of despair and turning me into an irascible harpy in the days before my period.
  • (14) It’s less the White House than the Black Tower, sending out its Breitbartian orcs and alt-right winged harpies to poison the politics of a nation.

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