Sickle Meaning
/ˈsɪkl̩/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAn implement having a semicircular blade and short handle, used for cutting long grass and cereal crops.
nounAnything resembling a sickle, especially:, A sickle feather, any of the sickle-shaped rear feathers of the domestic cock.
Sentence Examples
The girls who go, sickle on their shoulders, to cut alfalfa for the rabbits.
I cannot harvest. I don't have a sickle.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The farmer used a curved ____ to carefully cut the tall wheat in the field.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
In ancient times, farmers used a curved ____ to harvest grain manually in the golden fields.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English sikel (also assibilated in sichel), from Old English sicol, siċel, from Proto-West Germanic *sikilu, itself borrowed from Latin sēcula (“sickle”) or sīcīlis (“sickle”). Cognate with Dutch sikkel, German Sichel. Remotely related with English scythe and saw.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 116”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC, signature H, recto:
"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!"
— 1750 June 12 (date written; published 1751), T[homas] Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, in Designs by Mr. R[ichard] Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], published 1753, →OCLC, page 81:
"Then, ere the silver sickle of that month
Became her golden shield, I stole from court
With Cyril and with Florian, unperceived."
— 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part 1”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
"Even the cells of heterozygotes will sickle if the oxygen tension is low enough."
— 1975, Robert Warren McGilvery, IV. 75, in Biochemistry:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The farmer used a curved ____ to carefully cut the tall wheat in the field.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
In ancient times, farmers used a curved ____ to harvest grain manually in the golden fields.