harping


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Related to harping: tediously
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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.
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.
References in classic literature ?
Miller, I had indeed to go campaigning before, but I was barbed from counter to tail, and a man went along to groom me; and now I cannot understand what ailed me to prefer the mill before the battle." "Forbear," said the Miller to him, "harping on what was of yore, for it is the common lot of mortals to sustain the ups and downs of fortune."
You can hear Shelley perform her concert HarpOsphere; try the harp for the first time at a Hands-on Harps workshop; bring your little ones to a Tiny Hands-on Harps session; listen to harp ensembles including Dynamic Harps, Wales Clarsach Society, Harping On and Start Harp students.
Herself a harper specializing in Irish traditional music, Lawlor (music, Dundalk Institute of Technology) critically appraises and analyzes the Irish harping tradition from the beginning of the 20th century to the present.