What is "harry"

Harry \Har"ry\, v. i. To make a predatory incursion; to plunder or lay waste. [Obs.]
--Beau. & Fl.

Harry \Har"ry\ (-r[y^]), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Harried (-r[i^]d); p. pr. & vb. n. Harrying.] [OE. harwen, herien, her[yogh]ien, AS. hergian to act as an army, to ravage, plunder, fr. here army; akin to G. heer, Icel. herr, Goth. harjis, and Lith. karas war. Cf. Harbor, Herald, Heriot.]

1. To strip; to pillage; to lay waste; as, the Northmen came several times and harried the land.

   To harry this beautiful region.
   --W. Irving.

   A red squirrel had harried the nest of a wood thrush.
   --J. Burroughs.

2. To agitate; to worry; to harrow; to harass.
   --Shak.

   Syn: To ravage; plunder; pillage; lay waste; vex; tease; worry; annoy; harass.

masc. proper name, a familiar form of Henry. Weekley takes the overwhelming number of Harris and Harrison surnames as evidence that "Harry," not "Henry," was the Middle English pronunciation of Henry. Compare Harriet, English equivalent of French Henriette, fem. diminutive of Henri. Nautical slang Harriet Lane "preserved meat" (1896) refers to a famous murder victim whose killer allegedly chopped up her body.

Old English hergian "make war, lay waste, ravage, plunder," the word used in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" for what the Vikings did to England, from Proto-Germanic *harjon (cognates: Old Frisian urheria "lay waste, ravage, plunder," Old Norse herja "to make a raid, to plunder," Old Saxon and Old High German herion, German verheeren "to destroy, lay waste, devastate"), from *harjaz "an armed force" (cognates: Old English here, Old Norse herr "crowd, great number; army, troop," Old Saxon and Old Frisian heri, Dutch heir, Old High German har, German Heer "host, army," Gothic harjis), from PIE root *koro- "war" also "war-band, hose, army" (cognates: Lithuanian karas "war, quarrel," karias "host, army;" Old Church Slavonic kara "strife;" Middle Irish cuire "troop;" Old Persian kara "host, people, army;" Greek koiranos "ruler, leader, commander"). Weakened sense of "worry, goad, harass" is from c.1400. Related: Harried; harrying.

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To bother; to trouble. 2 To strip; to lay waste.

1. v. annoy continually or chronically; "He is known to harry his staff when he is overworked"; "This man harasses his female co-workers" [syn: harass, hassle, chivy, chivvy, chevy, chevvy, beset, plague, molest, provoke]

2. make a pillaging or destructive raid on (a place), as in wartimes [syn: ravage]

3. [also: harried]

Harry is a male given name, the Middle English form of Henry. It is also sometimes used as a diminutive form of Harold.

Harry can refer to:

Harry is Harry Nilsson's third album released August 1969 on RCA. It was his first album to get onto Billboard Magazine's Billboard 200 chart, reaching #120 and remaining there for 15 weeks.

Harry features jazz saxophonist Tom Scott, pianist Mike Melvoin, flutist Jim Horn, session drummer Jim Gordon, Larry Knechtel on bass, and David Cohen and Howard Roberts on guitars.

The album has no one distinctive style but ranges over ballads, show tunes, nostalgic Americana, and tin pan alley-like soft shoe numbers.

William E. Martin, who wrote the songs "Fairfax Rag" and "City Life" that Harry covered on Harry, and who collaborated with Nilsson on the song "Rainmaker," appears in a picture inside the gatefold version of the album wearing a bear suit that was made of an actual bear.

Harry is a television drama series that was made by Union Pictures for the BBC, and shown on BBC One between 1993 and 1995. The programme concerned a journalist called Harry Salter (played by Michael Elphick) who ran a news agency in the English town of Darlington in England.

Harry may refer to:

• Harry (name), a given name
• Harry (derogatory term), derogatory term used in Norway
• Harry (1987 TV series), a 1987 American television comedy
• Harry (TV series), a 1993 BBC television drama that ran for two seasons
• Harry (2013 TV series), a six-part 2013 New Zealand television crime drama starring Sam Neill
• Harry (album), a 1969 album by Harry Nilsson
• A tunnel at Stalag Luft III, site of "The Great Escape" during World War II

Harry is a Norwegian derogatory term used in slang, derived from the English name Harry. The best English translation may be "cheesy" or "tacky". Norsk ordbok defines "harry" as "tasteless, vulgar".

The term "harry" was first used by upper class youth in Oslo in the beginning of the 20th century, and was used to describe people who belonged to the working class. People in the lower social classes at the time often gave their children English first names such as Harry. The middle and upper classes mostly preferred Scandinavian or German (and occasionally French) names. English names (except English names that are also widely found in other European languages) had no tradition in Scandinavia and were generally considered bad taste and as a phenomenon of the working-class of the time in all the Scandinavian countries. The traditional elite of Norway mostly used conservative Danish names.

A person who is harry is often perceived as unsophisticated, vulgar or with bad taste. The effect of bad taste is often characterized with the term harry, e.g. a harry dress or a harry car. Since the definition of good and bad taste is defined by fashion, there is no precise definition of harry. D.D.E., Sputnik, shopping in Sweden, Raggare culture and mullets are often mentioned today. In the 1970s it was the 1960s' hairwax or sharp shoes that were harry. In the 1980s the 1970s' flared pants or whiskers, and in the 1990s more or less everything that could be associated with the 1980s. Yesterday's fashion will often be interpreted as harry. Often what is harry in one period can be hip retro fashion the next year.

Harry may also be interpreted as something like macho. The feminine parallel is doris.

The term was repopularised by then minister of Agriculture Lars Sponheim in 2002 to describe Norwegians who drive (in some cases, for hours) to reach and cross the border to Sweden in order to purchase groceries, tobacco and alcohol at cheaper prices. Responses to this were retorts that seeking out bargains is smart shopping, and Swedish shops introduced humorous campaigns with one shopkeeper giving 1000 SEK to customers named "Harry". The terms Harrytur ("Harry trip") or Harryhandel ("Harry trade") have since been popular descriptions of this trade.

Harry was an underground newspaper founded and edited by Michael Carliner and Tom D'Antoni and published biweekly in Baltimore, Maryland from 1969 to 1972. A total of at least 41 issues were published, with an average circulation of 6,000 to 8,000 copies. P. J. O'Rourke, then a student at Johns Hopkins University, was a regular contributor and one of its editors. The publication was arbitrarily named by a neighbor's 2-year-old son, who was reportedly calling everything "Harry" at the time.

The newspaper published in a 20 page black and white tabloid format, with news in front, followed by cultural features and a community calendar. Harry's slogan, just below its flag, declared its mission: "Serving the Baltimore Underground Community". Many of the staff lived in a Baltimore row house commune called "Harry." There was also an annex called "Harry's Aunt" down the block.

Twenty years after the newspaper stopped publishing, Publisher Thomas V. D'Antoni tried to restart Harry as a monthly publication in 1991. His first issue was expected to be 32 pages long, with eight pages of reprints from the original Harry, including some of O'Rourke's articles.

Harry is a French TV game show broadcast on France 3 from Monday to Friday at 4:50pm since November 12, 2012. The show is hosted by Sébastien Folin.

This game is the first created by Jean-Pierre Attal, a former TV gameshows contestant. It was codevelopped with the Newen and BigNose groups. It’s based upon the contestants’ ability to reform chopped up words.

Four contestants face off against Harry, a virtual character shaped like a smiley who mixes syllables. They have to put back in the correct order words that have been chopped up into a series of rings that move onscreen. Following two rounds and a semifinal, only one contestant reaches the final.

The credits’ soundtrack is the work of Mam's, Y. Bourdin, B. Raffaelli and E. Rosso. Xavier Pujade-Lauraine is credited with both creative and broadcast design for the program.