noun an implement for cutting grain, grass, etc., consisting of a curved, hooklike blade mounted in a short handle.
(initial capital letter ) Astronomy a group of stars in the constellation Leo, likened to this implement in formation.
Origin of sickle before 1000; Middle English sikel, Old English sicol; cognate with
Dutch zikkel, German Sichel, all ≪
Latin secula, equivalent to
sec(āre ) to cut +
-ula -ule Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Related Words for sickle bayonet ,
dagger ,
blade ,
sword ,
skewer ,
machete ,
sickle ,
cutter ,
scalpel ,
knife ,
trim ,
shear ,
shave ,
slice ,
rip ,
slash ,
carve ,
curtail ,
divide ,
lance Examples from the Web for sickle Contemporary Examples of sickle The communist part is no joke, either—his business card features a Soviet-style hammer and sickle in red.
France's Communist party has undergone a revolution and dropped the hammer and sickle from its membership cards.
Search online for “Obama” and “communist” or “hammer and sickle ” and hundreds of images pop up.
A new ad campaign paints the president as a communist on health care—complete with hammer and sickle .
But there was a twist—the hammer and sickle through the “c” in “Obama Care.”
Historical Examples of sickle The American pioneers had only a sickle or a scythe with which to cut their grain.
From behind the hills peeped the edge of the moon—a sickle of burnished copper.
The shoots are then topped off with a sickle , corn-cutter or similar tool.
The wheat was ripe for the sickle , but there was not a man or boy to (p. 021)cut it.
The scythe, the sickle , and the flail were the same as their forbears had used for centuries.
British Dictionary definitions for sickle noun an implement for cutting grass, corn, etc, having a curved blade and a short handle
Show More
Word Origin for sickle Old English sicol, from Latin sēcula; related to secāre to cut
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for sickle n. Old English sicol, probably a West Germanic borrowing (cf. Middle Dutch sickele , Dutch sikkel , Old High German sihhila , German Sichel ) from Vulgar Latin *sicila , from Latin secula "sickle" (cf. Italian segolo "hatchet"), from PIE root *sek- "to cut" (see section (n.)). Applied to curved or crescent-shaped things from mid-15c. Sickle-cell anemia is first recorded 1922.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
v. To cut with a sickle.
To deform a red blood cell into an abnormal crescent shape.
To assume an abnormal crescent shape. Used of red blood cells.
Show More
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
