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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Much Ado About Nothing
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Oedipus at Colonus
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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
His father made moan, his mother made moan, But Meggie made muckle mair; His father made moan, his mother made moan, But Meggie reave her yellow hair.
From Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Second Series by Sidgwick, Frank
Again at the end he says: "Delay not, Hubert, my orisons are ended, Begin I pray thee, reave me of my sight."
From The Man Shakespeare by Harris, Frank
Is it a small thing to reave the heavens of an insatiate monster and write upon the eternal dome, glittering with stars, the grand word liberty?
From Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - Latest by Ingersoll, Robert Green
All was silent in that room, the silence of the forest before the hurricane grasps it and bends it, and the lightnings reave its limbs.
From The Bondboy by Ogden, George W. (George Washington)
Was he looking at me, at the reaved safe, or at the pathetic little reminder, which I was holding in my hand, of that long-ago Christmas present?
From The Paternoster Ruby by Walk, Charles Edmonds
He had marked the misery malice had caused them, 15 1That reaved of their rulers they wretched had erstwhile2 Long been afflicted.
From Beowulf An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem by Hall, Lesslie
"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 Evans, Sebastian
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 Evans, Sebastian
Reave, reaved or reft, reaving, reaved or reft.
From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold
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
"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
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
Reave, reaved or reft, reaving, reaved or reft.
From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold
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
Sans raiment are the wardrobes, reft of mantle and of vair, The empty hollow of the hall of tapestry is bare.
From Legends & Romances of Spain by Spence, Lewis
They must know it is treason; for if they had succeeded, the life of the nation would have been reft from it, the Union would have been destroyed.
From The Struggle between President Johnson and Congress over Reconstruction by Chadsey, Charles Ernest
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
