reaping hook

8.3

A small hand tool with a curved blade and short handle for cutting wheat and grass

noun
/ˈriːpɪŋ hʊk/

Archaic

: hoz

She used a sharp reaping hook to gather bundles of barley in the field.

Examples

The farmer swung the reaping hook skillfully through the tall wheat.
The farmer sharpened his reaping hook before the harvest.
A rusty reaping hook hung on the barn wall as a reminder of old harvesting methods.
He used a reaping hook to cut the tall grass.
She used a sharp reaping hook to gather bundles of barley in the field.
The farmer swung the reaping hook skillfully through the tall wheat.
The farmer sharpened his reaping hook before the harvest.

Synonyms

sickle

vsreaping hook

21 5.6

A small hand tool with a curved blade for cutting grass or crops

is the same tool but called by a different common name

reap hook

vsreaping hook

9.8

A hand tool with a curved blade and short handle for cutting grass or crops

is the identical tool name but with a different word form

How Mechanized

combine

6 6.1

reaper binder

Archaic

9.9

reaper

Archaic

3 5.2

reaping hook

Archaic

8.3

scythe

12 6.7

Surface Forms

reaping hook singular

reaping hooks plural

Morphology

reap + hook

The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'reaping' (harvesting/cutting crops) with 'hook' (a curved tool): a reaping hook is simply the curved tool used for reaping. This is a straightforward compositional noun phrase following common morphological patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Reaping hook is a farm name for a small tool with a short handle and a curved blade — a hook — used for reaping, or 'cutting' and 'harvesting' crops by hand. That's why the term means a hand tool for cutting grass or crops.