Definitions

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

  • noun An implement having a semicircular blade attached to a short handle, used for cutting grain or tall grass.
  • noun The cutting mechanism of a reaper or mower.
  • intransitive verb To cut with a sickle.
  • intransitive verb To deform (a red blood cell) into an abnormal crescent shape.
  • intransitive verb To assume an abnormal crescent shape. Used of red blood cells.
  • adjective Shaped like the blade of a sickle; crescent-shaped.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A reaping-hook; a curved blade of steel (anciently also of bronze) having the edge on the inner side of the curve, with a short handle or haft, for cutting with the right hand grain or grass which is grasped by the left.
  • noun A sickle-shaped sharp-edged spur or gaff formerly used in cock-fighting.
  • noun In embryology, a crescentie thickening at the posterior edge of the blastodisc in certain vertebrate embryos with meroblastic eggs, such as the fishes and reptiles.
  • noun A crescentie whitish area in the choroid commonly observed in cases of myopia.
  • noun One of the arms; which support the yarn guide-wire, or faller, on the spindle-carriage of a spinning-mule: so named from its shape.
  • noun A sickle-feather.

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

  • noun A reaping instrument consisting of a steel blade curved into the form of a hook, and having a handle fitted on a tang. The sickle has one side of the blade notched, so as always to sharpen with a serrated edge. Cf. Reaping hook, under reap.
  • noun (Astron.) A group of stars in the constellation Leo. See Illust. of Leo.
  • noun (Bot.) a kind of rock cress (Arabis Canadensis) having very long curved pods.

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

  • noun agriculture an implement, having a semicircular blade and short handle, used for cutting long grass and cereal crops
  • verb agriculture, transitive To cut with a sickle
  • verb transitive To deform (as with a red blood cell) into an abnormal crescent shape.
  • verb intransitive To assume an abnormal crescent shape. Used of red blood cells.
  • adjective Shaped like the blade of a sickle; crescent-shaped.

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

  • noun an edge tool for cutting grass or crops; has a curved blade and a short handle

Etymologies

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

[Middle English sikel, from Old English sicol, from Vulgar Latin sicila, from Latin sēcula; see sek- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English sicol.

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