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Definition of "reave" [reave]

  • To seize and carry off forcibly. (verb-transitive)
  • To deprive (one) of something; bereave. (verb-transitive)
  • To rob, plunder, or pillage. (verb-intransitive)
  • Archaic To break or tear apart. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "reave" in a sentence
  • "Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Duke University, 1956, p. 274; and Carter Papers: An Inventory .... ") [7] The word" reave "meant to rob or strip at Carter's time."
  • "Lest for her like of garden scents he reave her,577"
  • "What can I say, h-dog: I'm just not as impressed as you are by the guy who took his pique out on the poor innocent fig tree, and told me he came bringing not peace, but the sword, to reave apart families."