Definition

1. Noun:
   • A farm machine that gathers a food crop from the fields: A mechanical device used to harvest grain crops like wheat or oats by cutting and gathering them.
   • Death personified as an old man or a skeleton with a scythe: A symbolic figure representing death, often depicted carrying a scythe.
   • Someone who helps to gather the harvest: A person who cuts and collects crops, especially by hand.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • The farmer used a modern reaper to harvest the wheat field efficiently.
  • In the painting, the Grim Reaper stood ominously at the door.
  • During the harvest season, many workers became reapers in the fields.

Advanced Usage

• "The Grim Reaper": A common personification of death as a cloaked skeleton carrying a scythe.

  • The novel used the Grim Reaper as a metaphor for the inevitability of fate.

• "Reaper of souls": A poetic or metaphorical phrase for death or a destructive force.

  • The plague was a terrible reaper of souls in the medieval era.

Variants and Related Words

• Reap (verb): To cut and gather a crop; to receive a consequence.

  • You will reap the rewards of your hard work.

• Reaping (noun/gerund): The action of cutting and gathering crops.

  • The reaping of the barley will begin next week.

Synonyms

• Harvester: A person or machine that gathers crops.
• Grim Reaper: Personification of death.
• Cutter: One who cuts, especially crops.

Related Phrases

• To sow and to reap: To plant seeds and then harvest the crop; often used metaphorically to mean actions have consequences.
  • As you sow, so shall you reap.

Related Idioms

• The Reaper calls: A euphemistic idiom meaning someone is about to die or is summoned by death.
  • The old soldier felt the Reaper was calling him.

Noun

1. farm machine that gathers a food crop from the fields
2. Death personified as an old man or a skeleton with a scythe
3. someone who helps to gather the harvest