sickle

Dictionary: sick·le (sĭk'əl) pronunciation

An implement having a semicircular blade attached to a short handle, used for cutting grain or tall grass.
The cutting mechanism of a reaper or mower.

v., -led, -ling, -les.

v.tr.

To cut with a sickle.
To deform (a red blood cell) into an abnormal crescent shape.

v.intr.

To assume an abnormal crescent shape. Used of red blood cells.

adj.

Shaped like the blade of a sickle; crescent-shaped: a sickle moon.

[Middle English sikel, from Old English sicol, from Vulgar Latin sicila, from Latin sēcula.]

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Archaeology Dictionary: sickle

[Ar]

A kind of knife designed for reaping corn. Early examples comprise flint blades mounted in a wooden or bone haft.

Veterinary Dictionary: sickling

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The development of sickle cells in the blood.

Gardener's Dictionary: sickle

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A short-handled cutting tool with a sharp, hook-shaped blade, used primarily to cut grasses or grain crops.

Wikipedia: Sickle

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A sickle on a Polish farm

For the United States Civil War general, see Daniel Sickles.

A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a curved blade typically used for harvesting grain crop or cutting grass for hay. The inside of the curve is sharp, so that the user can draw or swing the blade against the base of the crop, catching it in the curve and slicing it at the same time. The material to be cut may be held in a bunch in the other hand (for example when reaping), held in place by a wooden stick, or left free. When held in a bunch, the sickle action is towards the user (left to right for a right-handed user), but when used free the sickle is usually swung the opposite way. Different types may be referred to as a grasshook, swap hook, rip-hook, slash-hook, reaping hook, brishing hook or bagging hook.

Using a sickle

The blade of a sickle is often cranked to one side, to make it easier to keep the blade closer to the ground; this makes it right- or (more rarely) left-handed. Sickles used for reaping are usually serrated.

The sickle was largely superseded by the scythe, which is more comfortable and efficient to use for many purposes, but it continues in use in many parts of the world, and for certain uses where a scythe is not convenient. The most noticeable difference between a sickle and a scythe is the length of the handle: a sickle is a one-handed tool with a short handle, used while bending down to the ground, while a scythe is a two-handed tool, used standing up, with a long, often curved shaft, and a much longer blade.

A blade which is used regularly to cut the silica-rich stems of cereal crops acquires a characteristic sickle-gloss, or wear pattern. When this pattern appears on ancient stone tools, it can indicate early use or development of agricultural use.

In Greek myths, the sickle was used as a weapon by Cronus and Perseus.

Additional uses

The sickle is used as part of the well known symbol of the hammer and sickle, which is the symbol of Communism or Revolutionary Socialism. The sickle represents the agricultural working class or peasantry in this symbol.
Sickle is a fictional unit of money in the Harry Potter series.
SS-25 Sickle is the NATO reporting name for the RT-2PM Topol intercontinental ballistic missile.
Tacitus reports that golden sickles were used in Druidic rituals.

	Explain how the number of normal and sickle red blood cells differ in a preson with sickle-cell trait and sickle-cell anemia? Read answer...
	What is a genetic autoimmune difficiency in which blood cells look like a sickle It is not sickle cell anemia? Read answer...
	You are white but inherited sickle cell trait because of inter racial marriages in the family If you get a transfusion from someone with the trait can you have children with sickle disease? Read answer...

Help us answer these

	If beta thalassemia minor is treated before getting pregnant by a parter with sickle cell trait will the child end up with sickle cell?
	Would a man and and woman who have sickle cell disease gene what whould the chance of them having a child with the sickle cell trait?
	If to people have are carriers of sickle cell disease What is the percentage there fourth child with have sickle cell?

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Copyrights:

		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Archaeology Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more
		Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved. Read more
		Gardener's Dictionary. Taylor's Dictionary for Gardeners, by Frances Tenenbaum. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sickle". Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more

sickle

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