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sickle

[sik-uh l]
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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR sickle ON THESAURUS.COM

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.

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RELATED WORDS

bayonet, dagger, blade, sword, skewer, machete, cutter, scalpel, knife, trim, shear, shave, slice, rip, slash, carve, curtail, divide, lance, steel

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

Examples from the Web for sickle

Contemporary Examples of sickle

Historical Examples of sickle

  • The American pioneers had only a sickle or a scythe with which to cut their grain.

    The Age of Invention

    Holland Thompson

  • From behind the hills peeped the edge of the moon—a sickle of burnished copper.

    The Sea-Hawk

    Raphael Sabatini

  • 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.

    Charles Carleton Coffin

    William Elliot Griffis, D. D.

  • The scythe, the sickle, and the flail were the same as their forbears had used for centuries.

    Union and Democracy

    Allen Johnson

British Dictionary definitions for sickle

sickle

noun

an implement for cutting grass, corn, etc, having a curved blade and a short handle

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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Medicine definitions for sickle

sickle

[sĭk′əl]

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.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.