reapern.
/ˈriːpə/, U.S. /ˈripər/ 1.
a. A person who reaps.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > cultivation of plants or crops > harvesting > [noun] > cutting, reaping, or mowing > reaper or mower
reapmanOE
reaperOE
mower1225
shearer1318
puller1332
winner1352
repstera1450
harvestman1552
scytheman1577
harvester1589
sickler1638
messor1656
cradler1766
grass mower1779
thraver1813
reapa1825
bagger1844
cradle-man1889
OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xiii. 39 Þæt rip is worulde endung, þa riperas synt englas.
lOE Ælfric Homily: De Falsis Diis (Vesp. D.xiv) in R. D.-N. Warner Early Eng. Homilies (1917) 41 An geleafful wytega.., se hæfde riperes [OE Corpus Cambr. 178 rifteras] abedene to his corne.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1963) Ruth ii. 2 I schal go in to þe feeld & gederyn eris þat flen þe handis of reperis [L. metentium].
Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 430 Repare [?a1475 Winch. Repar], hervystmanne, messor.
1495 Act 11 Hen. VII c. 22 §3 A Reper and Carter..iijd. by the day.
?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. xvi Loke that your sherers, repers, nor mowers gelde nat your beanes.
1532 (c1385) Usk's Test. Loue in Wks. G. Chaucer Prol. f. cccxxvv These noble repers, as good workmen and worthy theyr hyer, han al drawe and bounde vp in ye sheues.
1576 A. Fleming tr. Socrates in Panoplie Epist. 228 Keeping company with the labouring reapers.
1611 Bible (King James) Ruth ii. 3 And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers . View more context for this quotation
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost xi. 434 Thither anon A sweatie Reaper from his Tillage brought First Fruits. View more context for this quotation
1691 R. Baxter Certainty Worlds of Spirits 166 Some Reapers..were hurt, writhen, and one killed with a Whirlwind.
1712 Spectator No. 425. ⁋3 Four Reapers, who danced a Morrice to the Sound of Oaten Pipes.
1740 W. Somervile Hobbinol ii. 21 The ripen'd Grain, whose bending Ears Invite the Reaper's Hand.
1781 J. Morison in Sc. Paraphr. XIX. v. 2 Joyous as when the reapers bear The harvest treasures home.
1813 G. Robertson Agric. Surv. Kincardine 264 (Jam.) While a reaper cuts..at the rate of nine threaves a-day, a threaver will..cut ten threaves in the same time.
1845 R. Ford Hand-bk. Travellers in Spain I. i. 69 Reapers..could never stand the sun's fire without this cooling acetous diet.
1885 W. W. Story Flammetta ii. 32 The groups of reapers that stopped from their work to gaze at the passing train.
1904 Times 13 Apr. 13/3 Here we have..a half-nude male reaper and his attendant female gleaner.
1958 J. Carew Black Midas ii. 26 This year the reapers are plentiful, but the harvest, where is the harvest?
2007 Independent (Nexis) 8 Jan. 34 A symbol of the 17th-century Catalan reapers who rose against Castilian invaders.
b. figurative. Death personified. Frequently with modifying adjective, as great, old. See also grim reaper n. at grim adj. and adv. Additions.In iconography, Death is often represented as wielding a scythe. Cf. scythe n. 2 and time n. 34b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > [noun] > personified or as an agent
deathOE
dragon?a1513
stinger1552
stretch-legc1560
king of terrors1610
divorcer?1611
reaper1650
raw-bone1784
Small-Back1823
grim reaper1847
the great or last enemy1885
scytheman1909
1613 T. Tuke Disc. Death 61 (margin) Death is a reaper.]
1650 J. Sparrow tr. J. Böhme Third Bk. Authour: Threefold Life of Man xviii. 288 When the Great Reaper cometh, he cutteth off all, one and other, and then the weeds and evill branches are bound in Bundles, and cast into the fire.
1766 A. Nicol Poems Several Subj. 206 The reaper, Death, no mortal can defy; And then, as falls the tree, so must it ly.
1779 J. Newton in J. Newton & W. Cowper Olney Hymns ii. 225 Death, the reaper, when he comes, Finds it [sc. grace's crop] fully ripe at last.
1829 N. P. Willis Fugitive Poetry 272 They say that I am old; That my heart is ripe for the reaper, Death.
1839 Longfellow in Baltimore Lit. Monument May 17/1 O, not in cruelty, not in wrath, The reaper came that day.
1863 Brit. Controversialist 3rd Ser. 133 This has been a busy year with Death...The haytime of the old reaper has been so active.
1931 Notes & Queries 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.
1976 ‘R. Lewis’ Witness my Death v. 182 The old house had been silent, waiting with him for the Old Reaper to come again.
2007 Times (Nexis) 10 Feb. 2 Only in the past three quarters of a century have doctors begun to find ways of deflecting the reaper's scythe.
2. A mechanical device for cutting grain (and, in later use, binding it) without manual labour. Cf. reaper-binder at Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > harvesting equipment > [noun] > reaping tools > reaping-machine
reaping machine1766
reaper1844
harvester1848
rotoscythe1933
1844 Let. 1 Nov. in Ohio Cultivator (1845) 15 Mar. 47 I purchased one of Mr. Cyrus H. McCormick's Reapers, with which I cut my last harvest.
1871 J. R. Lowell My Study Windows 87 Our pianos and patent reapers have won medals.
1910 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 15 709 Mr. McCormick's reaper is responsible for the increased supply of wheat.
1951 S. H. Bell December Bride ii. iv. 111 Frank sat on the reaper, his sunburnt face and chest beaded with sweat.
1981 Country Life 7 May 1266/1 Meadows were mown by horse-drawn reaper.
1995 Jrnl. Econ. Hist. 55 27 Nineteenth-century inventors supplied American farmers with a marvelous array of labor-saving devices, but none has attracted more interest than reapers and mowers.
Compounds
reaper-and-binder n. now chiefly historical = self-binder n.
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1877 Times 27 Aug. 8/3 On Friday the combined reaper and binder to which was awarded the silver medal of the Royal Agricultural Society was seen at work on the Goldington Farm, near Budford.
1915 C. Mackenzie Guy & Pauline 238 Close at hand was the hum of a reaper-and-binder.
1985 S. Sweeny Challenge of Smallholding v. 105 The mowing of cereals for threshing involves binding into sheaves with the grain heads at one end. This may be done with a reaper and binder or by scythe fitted with a special cradle.
reaper-binder now chiefly historical = reaper-and-binder n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > harvesting equipment > [noun] > reaping tools > reaping-machine > types of
jowlc1420
header1852
heading machine1853
self-delivery1853
self-binder1859
self-deliverer1859
reaper-binder1880
string-binder1891
windrower1948
1880 E. H. Knight in Rep. U.S. Commissioners to Paris Universal Expos., 1878 V. 133 The trial on the three reaper-binders and also on the reapers and mowers was renewed, in order to test them dynamometrically.
1953 E. Hyams Gentian Violet 54 A reaper-binder was cutting oats.
2003 Western Morning News (Plymouth) (Nexis) 13 Aug. 4 It reminded me of how harvest fields looked when I was growing up in South Devon in the 1950s, when reaper-binders were still the rule, and combine harvesters the exception.
ΚΠ
1720 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad V. xviii. 638 With bended Sickles stand the Reaper-Train.
1824 W. C. Bryant in U.S. Lit. Gaz. 15 Dec. 267/2 Thy shadow o'er the vale moves slow: Where, 'midst their labour, pause the reaper train.
1849 Dublin Univ. Mag. Oct. 448 When Autumn's breezy weather Called to life the reaper train.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.OE