sickle /ˈsɪkl̩/noun 4verb 3forms 3 noun4 •An implement having a semicircular blade and short handle, used for cutting long grass and cereal crops.Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; How jocund did they drive their team afield! How bow’d the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! — 1750 •Anything resembling a sickle. •A sickle feather, any of the sickle-shaped rear feathers of the domestic cock. •(literary) The crescent moon.Then, ere the silver sickle of that month Became her golden shield, I stole from court With Cyril and with Florian, unperceived. — 1847 verb3 •Of red blood cells: to assume an abnormal crescent shape.Even the cells of heterozygotes will sickle if the oxygen tension is low enough. — 1975 •To deform (as with a red blood cell) into an abnormal crescent shape, to cause to sickle. •(rare) To cut with a sickle. formssickled · sickling · sickles
