Sickle
name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An implement having a semicircular blade and short handle, used for cutting long grass and cereal crops.
"Coordinate term: scythe"
- 2 an edge tool for cutting grass or crops; has a curved blade and a short handle wordnet
- 3 Anything resembling a sickle, especially:; A sickle faether, any of the sickle-shaped rear feathers of the domestic cock.
- 4 Anything resembling a sickle, especially:; The crescent moon. poetic
"Then, ere the silver sickle of that month Became her golden shield, I stole from court With Cyril and with Florian, unperceived."
- 1 To cut with a sickle. rare, transitive
"Near-synonyms: reap, mow"
- 2 Of red blood cells: to assume an abnormal crescent shape. intransitive
"Even the cells of heterozygotes will sickle if the oxygen tension is low enough."
- 3 To deform (as with a red blood cell) into an abnormal crescent shape, to cause to sickle. transitive
- 1 A surname from German.
Example
More examples"The girls who go, sickle on their shoulders, to cut alfalfa for the rabbits."
Etymology
From Middle English sikel (also assibilated in sichel), from Old English sicol, siċel, from Proto-West Germanic *sikilu, itself borrowed from Latin sēcula (“sickle”) or sīcīlis (“sickle”). Cognate with Dutch sikkel, German Sichel. Remotely related with English scythe and saw.
Probably an Americanized form of German Sickel.
Related phrases
More for "sickle"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.