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
Wherefore is the castle warred upon of them that would fain reave her thereof by force.
From The High History of the Holy Graal by Sebastian Evans
A certain man would reave them of this castle for that no aid nor succour have they save of me alone.
From The High History of the Holy Graal by Sebastian Evans
An' may they never learn the gaets, Of ither vile, wanrestfu' pets— To slink thro' slaps, an' reave an' steal At stacks o' pease, or stocks o' kail!
From Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns
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 Essays — First Series by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Reave, reaved or reft, reaving, reaved or reft.
From The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown
"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
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 Lesslie Hall
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
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
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
It was Calamity lying on her face at the foot of the windlass, weeping and reaving her hair.
From The Freebooters of the Wilderness by Agnes C. (Agnes Christina) Laut
A split soon reft the I. W. W. ranks.
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
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
Wot tho' the sly contracters Defraud us rite and left, And Uncle Sam's old stockin' Of all his cash is reft?
From Letters of Major Jack Downing, of the Downingville Militia by Seba Smith
It and the glorious canopy of hanging stalactite above it must have been reft bare by some mighty convulsion that had anciently torn asunder these mountains, leaving the ravine in which we stood.
From From Veldt Camp Fires by H.A. Bryden
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