reaper
noun/ˈɹiːpɚ/
Etymology From Middle English reper, repare, repere, *riper (the last, attested only in surnames Ryper, Riper, etc.), from Old English rīpere (“reaper”), equivalent to reap + -er.
1
One who reaps; a person employed to harvest crops from the fields by reaping.
- Even as we looked some rumour seemed to have spread, for we saw the reapers hurrying from the fields.1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
2
A machine used to harvest crops.
3
Abbreviation, Capitalized, Ellipsis, Often Ellipsis of Grim Reaper.
- Thereafter when their cups were brimmed anew with foaming wine the Red Foliot spake among them and said, “O ye lords of Witchland, will you that I speak a dirge in honour of Gorice the King that the dark reaper hath this day gathered?”1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 31:
- Don't fear the Reaper / We'll be able to fly1976, Buck Dharma, “Don't Fear the Reaper”, performed by Blue Öyster Cult:
2 more examples
- Why is the Grim Reaper a man? True, the noun ending would theoretically allow us to visualize the reaper as a woman as well, but we don't.1999, Karl S. Guthke, The Gender of Death: A Cultural History in Art and Literature, page 7:
- She told me she wanted to meet the reaper I had only done her a favor She didn't deserve to die But I deserved to kill her2014, “Graveyard Shift”, performed by The Acacia Strain:
4
A recluse spider (Loxosceles and Sicarius spp.).
- Derived terms
- Grim Reaper, Norwood reaper, reaper-binder, reaper-thresher
- Related terms
- reap