scythe

Alternative forms

• (archaic): sithe, sythe
• (Exmoor dial.): zive

Etymology

From Middle English sythe or sithe, from Old English sīðe (“sickle”). The silent c appeared in the early 15th century because it was wrongly thought that the word was linked to Latin scissor ("carver, cutter") and scindere ("to cut"). Cognate with Dutch zicht (“sickle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪð/, (some accents) IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪθ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪð, -aɪθ

Noun

scythe (plural scythes)

1. An instrument for mowing grass, grain, or the like, by hand, composed of a long, curving blade, with the concave edge sharped, made fast to a long handle, called a snath.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 12:

     And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence

     Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

2. A scythe-shaped blade attached to ancient war chariots.
3. (cartomancy) The tenth Lenormand card.

Verb

scythe (third-person singular simple present scythes, present participle scything, simple past and past participle scythed)

1. (transitive) To cut with a scythe; to cut off as with a scythe; to mow.
2. (intransitive, figuratively) To attack or injure as if cutting.
   • 2011, Catherine Sampson, The Pool of Unease

     The boy began to keen, and the high-pitched noise scythed through Song's head.

Anagrams

• chesty