sickle

noun

1. An implement having a semicircular blade and short handle, used for cutting long grass and cereal crops.

   “Coordinate term: scythe”

   “Lou's not Times foole, though roſie lips and cheeks VVithin his bending ſickles compaſſe come, Loue alters not with his breefe houres and vveekes, But beares it out euen to the edge of doome: If this be error and vpon me proued, I neuer vvrit, nor no man euer loued.”

   “Oft did the harveſt to their ſickle yield, Their furrow oft the ſtubborn glebe has broke; How jocund did they drive their team afield! How bow’d the woods beneath their ſturdy ſtroke!”

2. Anything resembling a sickle, especially:
3. (poetic)Anything resembling a sickle, especially:

   “Then, ere the silver sickle of that month Became her golden shield, I stole from court With Cyril and with Florian, unperceived.”

verb

1. (rare, transitive)To cut with a sickle.

   “Near-synonyms: reap, mow”

2. (intransitive)Of red blood cells: to assume an abnormal crescent shape.

   “Even the cells of heterozygotes will sickle if the oxygen tension is low enough.”

3. (transitive)To deform (as with a red blood cell) into an abnormal crescent shape, to cause to sickle.

name

1. A surname from German.