scythe
/sʌɪð
/noun
A tool used for cutting crops such as grass or corn, with a long curved blade at the end of a long pole attached to one or two short handles.He also often bears a scythe or sickle in his arms, reflecting that Time's eroding force cuts down everything....
- Her knives were twice a long as a scythe set straight upon the handle.
- But the small party does not manage to remain separate, for it meets a masqued procession featuring Winged Time, his scythe and hourglass.
verb [with object]
1Cut with a scythe: the grass was scythed at regular intervals the first job was to scythe paths through the nettles figurative you may want hardy infantry troops to scythe down the opposition...
- Only Father Death reaped a bountiful harvest as he scythed the children of the community.
- I screamed, firing back, emptying my weapon into the fleeing figures: mowing several down like scythed wheat.
- Pesticides, similarly, were unknown: docks, nettles and thistles were scythed away by hand just as they came into seed.
1.1 [no object, with adverbial] Move through or penetrate something rapidly and forcefully: attacking players can scythe through defences...
- The Drumaness bowler scythed through the defence of Alan Millar with just the second delivery of his first over, dismissing the Bangor opener for 4 runs.
- On the stroke of half time Oxford once again scythed through the shaky gold defence, hooker Andy Dalgleish supplying Bradshaw with the perfect pass to score his second of the evening.
- The Empire - and its religion - survived until the crescent moon of Islam scythed across the region in the 7th century AD.
Origin
Old English sīthe, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zeis and German Sense.