Definition of "scythe"

scythe

/ˈsaɪð/

noun
plural scythes
1. An instrument for mowing grass, grain, etc. by hand, composed of a long, curving blade with a sharp concave edge, fastened to a long handle called a snath.
  Quotations
  And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defenceSave breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
  1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 12”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley
  Early next morning the gudewife took a scythe on her shoulder, and went out in the fields with the hay-mowers to mow.
  1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 41
2. (historical) A scythe-shaped blade attached to ancient war chariots.
3. (cartomancy) The tenth Lenormand card.
verb
third-person singular simple present scythes, present participle scything, simple past and past participle scythed
1. (intransitive) To use a scythe.
2. (transitive) To cut with a scythe.
3. (transitive) To cut off as with a scythe; to mow.
4. (intransitive, figurative, often with through) To attack or injure as if cutting.
  Quotations
  The boy began to keen, and the high-pitched noise scythed through Song's head.
  2011, Catherine Sampson, The Pool of Unease
  The smaller shells make a complete slaughterhouse of the bridge, and the splinters scythe through anyone out on deck.
  2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 20:09 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎, archived from the original on 3 November 2022

Definition of "scythe"

scythe

noun

Quotations

verb

Quotations