scythe
/ˈsaɪð/
scythe noun: an instrument for mowing grass, grain, etc. by hand, composed of a long, curving blade with a sharp concave edge, fastened to a long handle called a snath.
Noun
scythe (plural scythes)
- An instrument for mowing grass, grain, etc. by hand, composed of a long, curving blade with a sharp concave edge, fastened to a long handle called a snath.
- And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 12”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC - Early next morning the gudewife took a scythe on her shoulder, and went out in the fields with the hay-mowers to mow.1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 41
- And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
- A scythe-shaped blade attached to ancient war chariots.
- The tenth Lenormand card.
Verb
scythe (third-person singular simple present scythes, present participle scything, simple past and past participle scythed)
- To use a scythe.
- To cut with a scythe.
- To cut off as with a scythe; to mow.
- To attack or injure as if cutting.
- The boy began to keen, and the high-pitched noise scythed through Song's head.2011, Catherine Sampson, The Pool of Unease
- The smaller shells make a complete slaughterhouse of the bridge, and the splinters scythe through anyone out on deck.2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 20:09 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022
scythe meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Kannada
scythe in Hindi
- farm tool
- दराँती darā̃tī, हँसिया hãsiyā
scythe in Tamil
- அரிவாள்
scythe in Urdu
- farm tool
- دَرَانْتی darā̃tī
scythe in Kannada
- ಕುಡುಗೋಲು, ಕೊಯ್ಲು ಕತ್ತಿ, ಕೋಲ್ಗತ್ತಿ, ಕುಡುಗೋಲಿನಿಂದ ಹುಲ್ಲನ್ನು ಕತ್ತರಿಸು
More languagesFewer languages
- scythe in Tagalog
- kalawit, karit
- scythe in Arabic
- مِنْجَل minjal, مِقْضَب miqḍab
- scythe in Persian
- دهره dahre
- scythe in Thai
- เคียว kiao
- scythe in Vietnamese
- lưỡi hái
- scythe in Myanmar
- မြက်ခုတ်ဓား mrakhkutdha:
Examples of scythe in a sentence
- Grampa remembers when he had to cut filth with a scythe.
- The resulting scythe is heavier and more difficult to use than a bent snathe.
- A thin scythe of moon was rising, near the white wanderstar of dawn or dusk.
Forms of scythe
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | scythes |
| alternative form | zive |
| alternative form (archaic) | sithe |
| alternative form (archaic) | sythe |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | scythes |
| present participle | scything |
| past participle | scythed |
| past | scythed |
Origin of scythe
From Middle English sythe, sithe, from Old English sīþe, sīgþe, sigdi (“sickle”), from Proto-West Germanic *sigiþi, from Proto-Germanic *sigiþiz, *sigiþō, derived from *seg- (“saw”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”). Immediate Germanic cognates include Middle Low German sēgede, Dutch zicht, Icelandic sigð (all “sickle”). More distantly related with Dutch zeis, German Sense (both “scythe”). Also akin to English saw, which see. The silent c crept in during the early 15th century owing to folk-etymological association with Medieval Latin scissor (“tailor, carver”), from Latin scindō (“to cut, rend, split”). The verb, which was first used in the intransitive sense, is from the noun.
Words formed from scythe
Words that rhyme with scythe
Questions about scythe
- What does scythe mean?
- Scythe means an instrument for mowing grass, grain, etc. by hand, composed of a long, curving blade with a sharp concave edge, fastened to a long handle called a snath.
- What is scythe in Hindi?
- Scythe in Hindi is दराँती (darā̃tī), हँसिया (hãsiyā). See Scythe meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is scythe?
- Scythe can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce scythe?
- Scythe is pronounced /ˈsaɪð/.
- What is the plural of scythe?
- The plural of scythe is scythes.
Words near scythe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scythe (page history and authors); scythe (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scythe (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-us-scythe.ogg.
Cite this entry: “scythe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scythe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.