sickle
A sickle (smaller) and a scythe (larger)
Meanings
Noun
- An implement having a semicircular blade and short handle, used for cutting long grass and cereal crops.
- Any of the sickle-shaped middle feathers of the domestic cock.
Verb
- To cut with a sickle.
- To deform (as with a red blood cell) into an abnormal crescent shape.
- Of red blood cells: to assume an abnormal crescent shape.
Adjective
- Shaped like the blade of a sickle; crescent-shaped.
Related
Similar words
Origin
- From Middle English sikel (also assibilated in sichel), from Old English sicol, siċel, from Proto-Germanic *sikilō, of uncertain origin.
- Possibly a borrowing from Latin sēcula or sīcīlis; itself from Proto-Albanian *tsikā, or, alternatively derived as a diminutive of Proto-Germanic *seką, from Proto-Indo-European *seg-, a variant of Proto-Indo-European *sek-.
- Cognate with West Frisian systel, sisel, sizel, Dutch sikkel, German Sichel. Related also to West Frisian sichte, Dutch zicht, German Low German Sichte, Sicht, German Sech.
Modern English dictionary
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