French harp
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of French harp
An Americanism dating back to 1880–85
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The only times I had ever heard my little dog bawl like that were when she was baying at a bright Ozark moon, or when someone played a French harp or a fiddle close to her ear.
From Literature
On the top of one was some valuable old china, and on the other an electrifying machine; a French harp with only half-a-dozen strings stood in the corner near the fire-place, and several dusty pictures of various sizes leaned with their faces against the wall.
From Project Gutenberg
She also plays at least 15 musical and questionable instruments, to wit: banjo, fiddle, guitar, French harp, tenor guitar, ukulele, trumpet, accordion, piano, twelve-string guitars, Jew's-harp, dulcimer, five-string banjo, hand saw, rubber gloves, "and a tune I makes by just slopping against my cheeks with my hands."
From Time Magazine Archive
Then I do a number with the guit-tar and play the French harp and sing, all at the same time.
From Time Magazine Archive
There were declamations, debates, the interminable, singsong ballads of the frontier, usually accompanied by French harp or fiddle.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
