Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The elected president of a town council in some parts of Canada.
  • noun Any of various minor officers of parishes or other local authorities.
  • noun A bailiff or steward of a manor in the later medieval period.
  • noun A high officer of local administration appointed by the Anglo-Saxon kings.
  • transitive verb To pass (a rope or rod) through a hole, ring, pulley, or block.
  • transitive verb To fasten by passing through or around.
  • transitive verb To pass a rope or rod through (a hole, ring, pulley, or block).
  • noun The female ruff, Philomachus pugnax.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To run (a ship) through narrow channels in a shoal or through openings in an ice-pack, after the fashion of a rope through the hole in a block, etc.
  • An obsolete variant of reave.
  • noun A steward; a prefect; a bailiff; a business agent.
  • noun A foreman in a coal-mine.
  • noun A bird, the female of the ruff, Machetes pugnax, See Pavoncella, and cut under ruff.
  • Nautical, to pass or run through any hole in a block, thimble, cleat, ring-bolt, cringle, etc., as the end of a rope.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) The female of the ruff.
  • transitive verb (Naut.) To pass, as the end of a pope, through any hole in a block, thimble, cleat, ringbolt, cringle, or the like.
  • noun an officer, steward, bailiff, or governor; -- used chiefly in compounds

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb nautical To pass a rope through a hole or opening, especially so as to fasten it.
  • noun A female of the species Philomachus pugnax, a highly gregarious, medium-sized wading bird of Eurasia; the male is a ruff.
  • noun historical Any of several local officials, with varying responsibilities.
  • noun Canada The president of a township or municipal district council.
  • noun military, historical A proposed but unadopted commissioned rank of the Royal Air Force equivalent to wing commander.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb fasten by passing through a hole or around something
  • verb pass a rope through
  • verb pass through a hole or opening
  • noun female ruff

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English gerēfa.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably alteration of ruff.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English rēfa, an aphetism of ġerēfa.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word reeve.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • ...carrying the line high aloft and then reeving it downwards through a block towards the tub, so as in the act of coiling to free it from all possible wrinkles and twists.

    - Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 60

    July 26, 2008

  • senior officer of a borough

    August 26, 2008