| 释义 |
reaper|ˈriːpə(r)|
Forms: 1 ripere, 4–6 reper, (5 repare, 6 repar), 6– reaper.
[f. reap v.1]
1. a. One who reaps.
c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xiii. 39 Þæt rip is worulde endung, þa riperas synt englas. 1382Wyclif Ruth ii. 3 She..gedride eeris after the backis of reperis. 1387–8T. Usk Test. Love Prol. (Skeat) l. 105 These noble repers, as good work⁓men and worthy their hier han al draw and bounde vp in the sheues. c1440Promp. Parv. 430/1 Repare, hervyst⁓manne, messor. 1495Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 22 §3 A Reper and Carter..iijd. by the day. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §29 Loke that your sherers, repers, or mowers geld not your beanes. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 228 Keeping company with the labouring reapers. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 434 Thither anon A sweatie Reaper from his Tillage brought First Fruits. 1740Somerville Hobbinol ii. 21 The ripen'd Grain, whose bending Ears Invite the Reaper's Hand. 1845Ford Handbk. Spain i. 69 Reapers..could never stand the sun's fire without this cooling acetous diet.
attrib.1715–20Pope Iliad xviii. 638 With bended sickles stand the reaper train. 1730–46Thomson Autumn 225 He..chanced beside his reaper-train To walk.
b. fig. the (Great, Grim, Old) Reaper: Death personified.
The expression arises from the iconographic portrayal of Death wielding a scythe: cf. scythe n. 2.
1839Longfellow in Baltimore Lit. Monument May 17/1 O, not in cruelty, not in wrath, The reaper came that day. 1931N. & Q. 5 Sept. 180/2 One is startled by the inroads which the great reaper has made in the ranks of the Knights since the 15th Edition. 1940A. Upfield Bushranger of Skies xiv. 161 That he happened to be the seventh son of a seventh son..was said..to account for his escapes from The Reaper. 1976R. Lewis Witness my Death v. 182 The old house had been silent, waiting with him for the Old Reaper to come again. 1977New Statesman 2 Sept. 304/1 The Grim Reaper has been rather too vigorously at work among us... At least ten of the best have gone.
2. a. A mechanical device for cutting grain without manual labour, the more modern types having also a device for binding the sheaves.
1844Let. 8 Nov. in Ohio Cultivator (1845) 15 Mar. 47, I intended..to have written you immediately after harvest, respecting the performance of your Reaper. 1845Ohio Cultivator 1 Jan. 8/3 (heading) McCormick's Virginia Reaper. This is another valuable invention for wheat growers. 1847Monthly Jrnl. Agric. June 583 In what consists the difference between their [sc. Hussey's and McCormick's] Reapers we are not exactly advised. 1862Times 12 June 6/1 In addition to the agricultural machines..there are a variety of reapers and mowers. 1868Iowa State Agric. Soc. Rep. 1867 237 By the folding arrangement the driver can fold the reaper-bar..rendering it perfectly portable. 1871Lowell Study Wind. (1886) 76 Our pianos and patent reapers have won medals. 1883Stubbs' Mercantile Circular 26 Sept. 862/2 English reapers suit well in some parts of South Russia, but self-binders are not understood. 1923R. Herrick Homely Lilla xvi. 238 But there are tractors and reapers and sprayers. 1981Country Life 7 May 1266/1 Meadows were mown by horse-drawn reaper.
attrib.1887Pall Mall G. 23 Aug. 10/2 He fell off his seat and became entangled in the reaper knives.
b. reaper-(and-)binder = self-binder.
1895C. D. Warner Golden House ix. 116 He's got no more feeling in business than a reaper-and-binder. 1901G. B. Shaw Three Plays for Puritans p. xxxii, Fools who go laboriously through all the motions of the reaper and binder in an empty field. 1915C. Mackenzie Guy & Pauline 238 Close at hand was the hum of a reaper-and-binder. 1953E. Hyams Gentian Violet 54 A reaper-binder was cutting oats. |