reave
1 Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used with or without object)
verb
-
to carry off (property, prisoners, etc) by force
-
to deprive; strip See also reive
verb
Etymology
Origin of reave1
before 900; Middle English reven, Old English rēafian; cognate with German rauben, Dutch roven to rob
Origin of reave2
1175–1225; Middle English; apparently special use of reave 1 (by association with rive )
Explanation
To reave is to plunder, or to steal a lot of goods from someone. An attacking army might storm through a village and reave from all of the houses in it. You can use the verb reave when you need an antique way to say "plunder" or "pillage." Someone who reaves is basically stealing things, although the word implies the sense of a group stealing many items after an attack, as in wartime. The Old English root word is reafian, which means "to rob, plunder, or pillage," from the Proto-Indo-European reup, "to rip."
Vocabulary lists containing reave
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
While they were in Europe, Promoter Montgomery began to reave out stock at $8 to $12 a share.
From Time Magazine Archive
It that God will give, the Devil cannot reave.
From Collection of Scotch Proverbs by Pappity Stampoy
Man's the elm, and Wealth the vine; Stanch and strong the tendrils twine: Though the frail ringlets thee deceive, None from its stock that vine can reave.
From Poems Household Edition by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Man's the elm, and Wealth the vine, Stanch and strong the tendrils twine; Through the frail ringlets thee deceive, None from its stock that vine can reave.
From Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Edna Henry Lee Turpin
The King's 'God's eyes!' come now so thick and fast, We fear that he may reave thee of thine own.
From Becket and other plays by Alfred Tennyson, Baron Tennyson
And he hath reaved me of my land and the Valleys of Camelot without reasonable occasion.
From The High History of the Holy Graal by Sebastian Evans
O deceived, If thou hear in these thoughtless harmonies A pious phantom of adorings reaved, And echo of fair ancient flatteries!
From New Poems by Francis Thompson
"Sir," saith she, "All this hath the Lord of the Moors reaved of my lady mother, and nought coveteth he so much as to have this castle, and have it he will, betimes."
From The High History of the Holy Graal by Sebastian Evans
For well you know that they have reaved her of her castles by wrong, and of her land, for that she is a Widow Lady without help.
From The High History of the Holy Graal by Sebastian Evans
Reave, reft or reaved, reaving, reft or reaved.
From The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown
With the Hundred Years' War against England came soldiers reaving and burning through the countryside, while the Black Death followed swiftly thereafter, striking Burgundy in 1348 and again, with even greater severity, in 1360.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2024
Was the sequel originally going to be a prequel about Bala-Tik and the Guavian Death Gang’s early years of reaving in the outer rim territories?
From The Guardian ● May 4, 2016
Whenever he was in his cups he would call for a reaving song, something loud and stormy that told of dead heroes and deeds of wild valor.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
"You were no priest when I was taken from Pyke.. I remember how you would sing the old reaving songs standing on the table with a horn of ale in hand."
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Reave, reaved or reft, reaving, reaved or reft.
From The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown
The best lines in the Cantos are very good indeed: What thou lovest well remains, the rest is dross What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee .
From Time Magazine Archive
Several years ago, Mayo Clinic's famed Digestion Expert Walter Clement Alvarez started a notebook in which he collected experiences of patients whose appendixes had been reft from them.
From Time Magazine Archive
A split soon reft the I. W. W. ranks.
From Time Magazine Archive
B. Minor gave her a suspicious look, as if she feared she might be reft of her treasure.
From The Story of Louie by Oliver [pseud.] Onions
He is plunged in grief to find himself thus reft of all his visionary joys, and prays to sleep again, and dream thus for aye, or at least "a thousand years and ten."
From The Romance of Biography (Vol 1 of 2) or Memoirs of Women Loved and Celebrated by Poets, from the Days of the Troubadours to the Present Age. 3rd ed. 2 Vols. by Mrs. (Anna) Jameson
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