English Explanatory Dictionary

sickle

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An implement having a semicircular blade and short handle, used for cutting long grass and cereal crops.
  2. Anything resembling a sickle, especially:
  3. A sickle feather, any of the sickle-shaped rear feathers of the domestic cock.
  4. The crescent moon.
verb
  1. To cut with a sickle.
  2. Of red blood cells: to assume an abnormal crescent shape.
  3. To deform (as with a red blood cell) into an abnormal crescent shape, to cause to sickle.
name
  1. A surname from German.

Pronunciation

/ˈsɪkl̩/ en-us-sickle.ogg en-uk-sickle.ogg en-au-sickle.ogg

Word forms

sickle sickles sickling sickled

Etymology

From Middle English sikel (also assibilated in sichel), from Old English sicol, siċel, from Proto-West Germanic *sikilu, itself borrowed from Latin sēcula (“sickle”) or sīcīlis (“sickle”). Cognate with Dutch sikkel, German Sichel. Remotely related with English scythe and saw.

Synonyms

reap hook reaping hook reap mow

Derived words

chain sickle chicken sickle hammer and sickle moonsickle sickle and hammer sicklebill sickle-billed vanga sicklebush sickle cell sickle-cell anemia sicklelike sickleman sicklemia sickle moon sicklepod sickleweed sicklewise unsickle sickler
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