Word.ws English Dictionary

reeves

/ɹiːvz/

reeves is the plural of reeve.

Meaning of reeve

Noun (1)

reeve (plural reeves)

  1. (historical) Any of several local officials, with varying responsibilities.
    • His first convert was the reeve of the city of Lincoln called Blæcca, ...1999, Bede, edited by Judith McClure and Roger Collins, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 99
    Synonyms:
    provost
  2. (Canada) The president of a township or municipal district council.
  3. (historical) The holder of a proposed but unadopted commissioned rank of the Royal Air Force, equivalent to wing commander.
    • A list of new titles was manufactured as follows: Ensign, Lieutenant, Flight-Leader, Squadron-Leader, Reeve, Banneret, Fourth-Ardian, Third-Ardian, Second-Ardian, Ardian, Air Marshal. […] “Reeve”, perhaps, savoured a little too much of legal authority.1936, The Periodical, volumes 21-22, Oxford University Press, page 67

Noun (2)

reeve (plural reeves)

  1. A female of the species Philomachus pugnax, a highly gregarious, medium-sized wading bird of Eurasia; the male is a ruff.

See all 7 meanings of reeve

Proper noun capitalized: Reeves

Reeves

  1. A surname originating as an occupation.
  2. An unincorporated community in Gordon County, Georgia, United States.
  3. A village in Allen Parish, Louisiana, United States.
  4. A townland in County Kildare, Ireland.

Origin of reeves

* As an English surname, variant of Reeve with excrescent -s. * Also as an English topographical surname, from a misdivision of the Middle English phrase atter eves (“at the border”), see Eaves. * As an Irish surname, from Ó Rímheadha, Ó Rímheá (“descendant of Rímheadh”), from rímid (“counter”).

Words formed from reeves

Phrases with reeves

Questions about reeves

What does reeves mean?
Reeves means a surname originating as an occupation.
What is reeves the plural of?
Reeves is the plural of reeve.
What part of speech is reeves?
Reeves is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce reeves?
Reeves is pronounced /ɹiːvz/.

Words near reeves in the dictionary

  1. reevaporations
  2. reeve
  3. reeved
  4. reeveland
  5. reevelands
  6. reeves
  7. Reeves County
  8. Reeves' shad
  9. Reeves' shads
  10. Reeves's muntjac
  11. Reeves's muntjacs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reeves (page history and authors); Reeves (page history and authors); reeve (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.

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