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What is "reaping hook"

The Collaborative International Dictionary
Reaping hook

Reap \Reap\ (r[=e]p), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Reaped (r[=e]pt); p. pr. & vb. n. Reaping.] [OE. repen, AS. r[=i]pan to seize, reap; cf. D. rapen to glean, reap, G. raufen to pluck, Goth. raupjan, or E. ripe.]

  1. To cut with a sickle, scythe, or reaping machine, as grain; to gather, as a harvest, by cutting.

    When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field.
    --Lev. xix. 9.

  2. To gather; to obtain; to receive as a reward or harvest, or as the fruit of labor or of works; -- in a good or a bad sense; as, to reap a benefit from exertions.

    Why do I humble thus myself, and, suing For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate?
    --Milton.

  3. To clear of a crop by reaping; as, to reap a field.

  4. To deprive of the beard; to shave. [R.]
    --Shak.

    Reaping hook, an implement having a hook-shaped blade, used in reaping; a sickle; -- in a specific sense, distinguished from a sickle by a blade keen instead of serrated.

Wiktionary
reaping hook

alt. A sickle, particularly a small one with a short handle used for cutting grass or crops. n. A sickle, particularly a small one with a short handle used for cutting grass or crops.

WordNet
reaping hook

n. an edge tool for cutting grass or crops; has a curved blade and a short handle [syn: sickle, reap hook]

Usage examples of "reaping hook".

For a moment, the husbandman twisted the reaping hook in calloused hands.

The lieutenant ducked under a beam and lunged at Sharpe, who parried, then Bursay snarled and charged, the cutlass sweeping like a reaping hook, and Sharpe threw himself back against the cabin's forward bulkhead and the Frenchman knew he had won, except that Sharpe bounced back from the wall, his saber held like a spear, and stretched forward so that the curved tip ripped into Bursay's throat.

The lieutenant ducked under a beam and lunged at Sharpe, who parried, then Bursay snarled and charged, the cutlass sweeping like a reaping hook, and Sharpe threw himself back against the cabin’.

I am the cure of Darney, a village among the Reaping Hook Hills, a few leagues south from here.

Then the little man handed me the bundle of dusters, saying, `I always carry them on my reaping hook, but I don't think you could manage it properly.

They bore an odd array of weapons--the spoke from a wagon wheel, a cleaver, a reaping hook, two axes for chopping wood, and a makeshift spear.