† harping-iron Obs.
(ˈhɑːpɪŋˈaɪən)
[Related to F. harper to grapple, grasp, clasp, etc. (Cotgr.), also harpin a boat-hook.]
A barbed spear or javelin used for spearing whales and large fish; a harpoon. (In quot. 1734, a grappling-iron.)
| 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 37, I haue prouided harping yrons to catch this great Whale. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 839 A Crocodile or some other monster..which thrust out a tongue like a harping iron. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) III. 21 With his harping Iron he can draw ashore the great Leviathan. 1665 G. Havers P. della Valle's Trav. E. India 328 We..strike them with a broad instrument, full of barbs, called an Harping-iron. 1701 C. Wolley Jrnl. in N. York (1860) 38 The tow..is a line fastend to the Harping⁓iron about 50 fathoms long. 1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. IV. viii. xiv. 90 Nicias had provided harping irons to grapple them. 1814 W. Brown Hist. Propag. Chr. II. 455 They..insert it [poison] in the point of their arrow or harping iron. |