Word.ws English Dictionary

reape

reape is the obsolete spelling of reap.

Meaning of reap

Verb

reap (third-person singular simple present reaps, present participle reaping, simple past and past participle reaped or (obsolete) reapt)

  1. (transitive) To cut (for example a grain) with a sickle, scythe, or reaping machine.
  2. (transitive) To gather (e.g. a harvest) by cutting.
    • And when ye reape the haruest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reape the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy haruest.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Leviticus 19:9
    Synonyms:
    harvest
  3. (transitive) To obtain or receive as a reward, in a good or a bad sense.
    • to reap a benefit from exertions
    Synonyms:
    harvest
  4. (transitive) To terminate a child process that has previously exited, thereby removing it from the process table.
    • Until a child process is reaped, it may be listed in the process table as a zombie or defunct process.
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To deprive of the beard; to shave.
    • Came there a certaine Lord, neat and trimly drest;
      Fresh as a Bride-groome, and his Chin new reapt,c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  6. (euphemistic, slang) To rape.

See all 7 meanings of reap

Questions about reape

What is reape the obsolete spelling of?
Reape is the obsolete spelling of reap.

Words near reape in the dictionary

  1. reap what one sows
  2. reap'd
  3. reap-silver
  4. reap-time
  5. reapable
  6. reape
  7. reaped
  8. reaped the benefits
  9. reaped the harvest
  10. reaped the whirlwind
  11. reaped what one had sown

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reape (page history and authors); reap (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:

Cite this entry: “reape.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reape. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.