c1350 Apocalypse St. John: A Version (Harl. 874) (1961) 116 (MED) Sette þi sykel in þe corne, for þe tyme is comen of repyng [Fr. messouner].

a1425 J. Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. (1869) I. 97 Tyme of þis repinge is clepid þe day of dome.

a1500 (c1410) Dives & Pauper (Hunterian) (1976) i. 277 (MED) Seruyl wark is..eryyng, sowyng, repynge, mowynge.

1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. John iv There is more pain and labour about the tilling and sowing, then in the haruest and reaping.

1576 A. Fleming tr. Isocrates in Panoplie Epist. 179 To the readie reaping of your comoditie.

1609 Bible (Douay) I. Gen. xlv. 6 It is two yeares since the famin begain to be vpon the earth, and yet fiue yeares remaine, wherin there can be neither earing nor reaping.

1659 H. Hammond Paraphr. & Annot. Psalms (xxxix. 5 Annot.) 211/1 The toyle of the harvest, in reaping, binding, cocking.

1693 J. Evelyn tr. J. de La Quintinie Compl. Gard'ner i. ii. vii. 32 Those, which..require some help in order to a good Reaping.

1765 Museum Rusticum 3 136 Let the wheat stand ever so well, yet reaping is preferable to mowing.

1796 Monthly Mag. Oct. 688/1 This explains the killing of the Hydré, to be the reaping of the corn, and the heads of the corn so cut off increased fifty-fold.

1812 J. Sinclair Acct. Syst. Husbandry Scotl. i. 270 An acre of potatoes gives 120 days reaping (shearing).

1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm III. 1053 Calculating every day's reaping of those who are hired by the day.

1881 Athenæum 5 Nov. 603/2 That blueness which proves thousands of reapings by a razor.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 87/1 The ploughing is done by the men, but women and girls do the reaping.

1941 E. Mittelholzer Corentyne Thunder xxii. 135 The crop would not be ready for reaping until November.

1998 Sociol. Relig. 59 341 Adventists have placed increasing emphasis on public evangelist campaigns... The media programs tend to make contacts, but the reaping is done mostly in campaigns, seminars, and home Bible studies.

1954 E. Dominy Teach Yourself Judo vii. 70 The Major Outer Reaping. This is one of the most effective and popular throws in judo.

1956 K. Tomiki Judo iii. 68 O-soto-gari (Major Outer Reaping Leg Throw).

1976 Oxf. Compan. Sports & Games 547/2 The most successful throws have proved to be..o-soto-gari (major outer reaping throw), [etc.].

2000 Guardian (Nexis) 13 Sept. (Sport section) 28 Reaping appears everywhere. Barely a moment passes in international judo when someone or other has not been reaped.

1795 G. Robertson Gen. View Agric. Mid-Lothian (new ed.) v. 74 The reaping fork, for collecting into sheaves, corn that are cut with the scythe, will probably be adopted more generally, as the practice of mowing corn becomes more common.

1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 793 A reaping fork is sometimes made use of for collecting it into sheaves.

1992 Gettysburg (Pa.) Times 20 Nov. 7 (advt.) Exceptional public sale... Antiques... Doll carriage and dolls; butter churn; grain reaping fork [etc.].

1763 W. Hanbury in W. Bailey Advancem. Arts, Manufactures, & Commerce (1772) I. i. xxi. 115 (title) A description and explanation of the Brabant and Hainault Reaping-Scythes and Staff-Hook.

1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm III. 1081 Of this form of mounting a reaping-scythe there are many varieties.

2006 Prospect (Nexis) 20 Apr. The reaping scythe, potent symbol of France's rural past, is much more agreeable to the urban majority than the truncheon and riot shield used by the oppressive state.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Moissonnier A reaping sickle.

1845 J. Train Hist. & Statist. Acct. Isle of Man II. xx. 244 The implements used for this purpose are a gripe, or fork with several prongs, and a hook resembling a reaping sickle.

1942 Pacific Hist. Rev. 11 237 Rice is grown everywhere in Asia without benefit of machinery, indeed in many places the reaping sickle, and in some places the metal plow share, is the only metal used to produce rice.

1657 T. Brooks String of Pearles 144 The Saints dying day is their reaping day; now they shall reap the fruit of all the prayers that ever they have made.

1674 R. Alleine Godly-fear 43 Know it in time, and through-out thy Sowing, think of thy Reaping-Day.

1741 J. Parry True Anti-Pamela 356 Our reaping Day is nigh, and the Moment we have done, then I..will fly into thy dear Arms with Pleasure.

1848 J. J. S. Wharton Law Lexicon 539/1 Precariae or Preces, day-works, which the tenants of certain manors are bound to give their lords in harvest time. Magna precaria was a great or general reaping-day.

1995 B. W. Higman Slave Populations Brit. Caribbean (new ed.) vi. 178 When the reaping day came,..a gun was fired early in the morning and the slaves rushed forward to gather as much as they could for their owners.

1766 ‘Claudero’ Misc. Prose & Verse Ded. sig. A2 To Peter Williamson.., Inventer of the Reaping Machine, of the Mariner's Diving-box.

1812 J. Sinclair Acct. Syst. Husbandry Scotl. i. 328 No reaping machine has yet been invented, that will answer the object they had in view.

1999 Jrnl. Afr. Hist. 40 228 In England, the reaping machine became a practical instrument only in 1851.

?a1656 J. Poole Eng. Parnassus (1657) 546 The bloody harvest where whole threaves of men, The reaping sword sythes down.

1865 A. C. Swinburne Garden of Proserpine in Poems & Ballads 6 I watch the green field growing For reaping folk and sowing.

1887 R. L. Stevenson Markheim in Merry Men 130 Do I say that I follow sins? I follow virtues also;..they are both scythes for the reaping angel of Death.

1956 E. J. Harrison tr. H. Aida Kodokan Judo iii. 58 At the moment when he is contemplating the reaping action with his right leg swiftly pull him near you to counter.

1972 Dominion-Post (Morgantown, W. Va.) 16 Apr. When death's dark angel raps upon the door No power on earth can stay his reaping hand.

1994 M. Rowlinson Tennyson's Fixations ii. 91 What is interesting about this text for my purposes is the way the reaping woman becomes a figure in whom voice and writing can be separated.