reaper

/ˈripər/

/ˈripə/

Other forms: reapers

The noun reaper refers to a person who harvests crops. If your part-time job involves harvesting corn by hand, then you're a reaper. Reaper can also refer to a piece of farm equipment used to harvest crops, especially grains.

It's not a coincidence that reap looks a lot like the word ripe. When the crops are ripe — in Old English, "ready for reaping, fit for eating" — a reaper, either human or mechanical, can harvest them. Reap means "to cut grain with a hook or sickle." This might remind you of the Grim Reaper, the personification of death in art, movies, and stories, who is shown carrying a sickle and is said to be the harvester of souls.

Definitions of reaper

1. noun

   someone who helps to gather the harvest
   synonyms: harvester

   types:

   vintager

   a person who harvests grapes for making wine

   type of:

   farm worker, farmhand, field hand, fieldhand

   a hired hand on a farm
2. noun

   farm machine that gathers a food crop from the fields
   synonyms: harvester

   types:

   binder, reaper binder

   a machine that cuts grain and binds it in sheaves

   combine

   harvester that heads and threshes and cleans grain while moving across the field

   header

   a machine that cuts the heads off grain and moves them into a wagon

   type of:

   farm machine

   a machine used in farming