sickle
Americannoun
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an implement for cutting grain, grass, etc., consisting of a curved, hooklike blade mounted in a short handle.
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Astronomy. Sickle, a group of stars in the constellation Leo, likened to this implement for its curved, sickle-like shape.
noun
Etymology
Origin of sickle
First recorded before 1000; Middle English sikel, Old English sicol; cognate with Dutch zikkel, German Sichel, all ultimately derived from Latin secula, equivalent to sec(āre) “to cut” + -ula -ule
Explanation
A sickle is a tool with a handle and a curved metal blade that workers use for trimming grass or harvesting crops. Put a hammer next to a sickle and boom, there’s the symbol for communism. Farmers use sickles to clear brush or cut grain crops by hand. In some parts of the world, sickles are also used as weapons and for cooking. The sickle often represents an agricultural working class, notably in the crossed hammer and sickle symbol of the former Soviet Union and current Communist and Socialist parties around the world. Sickle comes from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to cut."
Vocabulary lists containing sickle
Fences
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Shiloh
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Between Shades of Gray
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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.
A model of how one of GluBio’s experimental ‘molecular glue’ drugs causes two proteins in the human body, WIZ and cereblon, to stick to each other in a way designed to relieve sickle cell disease.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026
Alongside actor-comedian Marlon Wayans, Snow wanted to make the film to raise awareness about the realities of sickle cell disease and how it impacts Black communities.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 23, 2026
While making the project, his mother suffered two strokes, his brother was treated for psychosis, and his younger sister died of sickle cell anaemia.
From BBC • Jan. 8, 2026
"The first gene editing drug approved for a blood disease -- sickle cell anemia -- targets a cell-type specific enhancer."
From Science Daily • Dec. 19, 2025
The woman was overjoyed at the sight of so much thatching grass and she immediately began to cut it down with her sickle.
From "The Girl Who Married a Lion: and Other Tales from Africa" by Alexander Mccall Smith
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.
