sickle

Meaning

Noun

1. An implement having a semicircular blade and short handle, used for cutting long grass and cereal crops.
2. Any of the sickle-shaped middle feathers of the domestic cock.

Verb

1. To cut with a sickle.
2. To deform (as with a red blood cell) into an abnormal crescent shape.
3. Of red blood cells: to assume an abnormal crescent shape.

Adj

Shaped like the blade of a sickle; crescent-shaped.

Hyphenated as

sic‧kle

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈsɪkl̩/

Etymology

From Middle English sikel (also assibilated in sichel), from Old English sicol, siċel, from Proto-West Germanic *sikilu, itself borrowed from Latin sēcula (“sickle”) or sīcīlis (“sickle”). Cognate with Dutch sikkel, German Sichel. Remotely related with English scythe and saw.