reap what one sows
UK/ˌɹiːp(h)wɒt wʌn ˈsəʊz/US/ˌɹip wɑt wʌn ˈsoʊz/
reap what one sows verb: to receive as a return or reward in the same measure as one's exertions or intentions, in a good or a bad sense; to receive justice or one's just deserts.
Verb
reap what one sows (third-person singular simple present reaps what one sows, present participle reaping what one sows, simple past reaped what one sowed or reaped what one had sown, past participle reaped what one has sown or reaped what one had sown)
- To receive as a return or reward in the same measure as one's exertions or intentions, in a good or a bad sense; to receive justice or one's just deserts.
- You're going to reap just what you sow1972, Lou Reed, “Perfect Day”
- "We will reap what we sow; live with what we do not act to change," he said.2005 November 15, Tony Blair, The Guardian
Forms of reap what one sows
| third-person singular present | reaps what one sows |
|---|---|
| present participle | reaping what one sows |
| past | reaped what one sowed |
| past | reaped what one had sown |
| past participle | reaped what one has sown |
| past participle | reaped what one had sown |
Origin of reap what one sows
From Galatians 6:7 in the Bible (King James Version; spelling modernized): “Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Words that rhyme with reap what one sows
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- interpose
- propose
- gloze
- oppose
- disclose
- foreclose
- prose
- snows
- turn up one's nose
- unclose
- adipose
- appose
- arose
- chose
- counterpose
- croze
- decompose
- doze
- enclose
- froze
- hoes
- knows
- adoze
- apollos
- beaus
- beprose
- blows
- bose
- bros
- châteaux
- cloze
- coze
- crows
- does
- dos
- doughs
- fallows
- fellows
- flows
- foes
- follows
- foredispose
- frows
- glows
- goes
- grows
- hard-nose
- hollows
Questions about reap what one sows
- What does reap what one sows mean?
- Reap what one sows means to receive as a return or reward in the same measure as one's exertions or intentions, in a good or a bad sense; to receive justice or one's just deserts.
- What part of speech is reap what one sows?
- Reap what one sows is a verb.
- How do you pronounce reap what one sows?
- Reap what one sows is pronounced /ˌɹiːp(h)wɒt wʌn ˈsəʊz/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of reap what one sows?
- The past tense of reap what one sows is reaped what one sowed.
Words near reap what one sows in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: reap what one sows (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-reap what one sows.ogg.
Cite this entry: “reap what one sows.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reap_what_one_sows. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.