SCYTHE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does scythe mean? 

• SCYTHE (noun)
  The noun SCYTHE has 1 sense:

1. an edge tool for cutting grass; has a long handle that must be held with both hands and a curved blade that moves parallel to the ground

  Familiarity information: SCYTHE used as a noun is very rare.

• SCYTHE (verb)
  The verb SCYTHE has 1 sense:

1. cut with a scythe

  Familiarity information: SCYTHE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCYTHE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An edge tool for cutting grass; has a long handle that must be held with both hands and a curved blade that moves parallel to the ground

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("scythe" is a kind of...):

edge tool (any cutting tool with a sharp cutting edge (as a chisel or knife or plane or gouge))

Derivation:

scythe (cut with a scythe)

• SCYTHE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they scythe    ... he / she / it scythes   
Past simple: scythed   
Past participle: scythed   
-ing form: scything   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cut with a scythe

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

scythe grass or grain

Hypernyms (to "scythe" is one way to...):

cut down; mow (cut with a blade or mower)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They scythe rye in the field

Derivation:

scythe (an edge tool for cutting grass; has a long handle that must be held with both hands and a curved blade that moves parallel to the ground)

 Context examples 

And his father said, “Heaven be praised! we have found our dear child again”; and he told his wife not to use the scythe for fear she should hurt him.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Her knives were twice as long as a scythe, set straight upon the handle.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Also a dress of blue sendall for mother and a red one for Joan; with five acres of pasture-land, two scythes, and a fine new grindstone.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My time must be nigh at hand now, for I be aud, and a hundred years is too much for any man to expect; and I'm so nigh it that the Aud Man is already whettin' his scythe.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“Do you stay behind,” said the woodman, “and when I have knocked him on the head you must rip him up with the scythe.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Whereupon seven monsters, like himself, came towards him with reaping-hooks in their hands, each hook about the largeness of six scythes.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The woodman and his wife, being awakened by the noise, peeped through a crack in the door; but when they saw a wolf was there, you may well suppose that they were sadly frightened; and the woodman ran for his axe, and gave his wife a scythe.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I used to attend the king’s levee once or twice a week, and had often seen him under the barber’s hand, which indeed was at first very terrible to behold; for the razor was almost twice as long as an ordinary scythe.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)