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  1. reeve love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The elected president of a town council in some parts of Canada.
  2. n. Any of various minor officers of parishes or other local authorities.
  3. n. A bailiff or steward of a manor in the later medieval period.
  4. n. A high officer of local administration appointed by the Anglo-Saxon kings.
  5. v. Nautical To pass (a rope or rod) through a hole, ring, pulley, or block.
  6. v. Nautical To fasten by passing through or around.
  7. v. Nautical To pass a rope or rod through (a hole, ring, pulley, or block).
  8. n. The female ruff.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A steward; a prefect; a bailiff; a business agent. The word enters into the composition of some titles, as borough-reeve, hog-reeve, portreeve, sheriff (shire-reeve), town-reeve, etc., and is itself in use in Canada and in some parts of the United States.
  2. n. A foreman in a coal-mine.
  3. An obsolete variant of reave.
  4. Nautical, to pass or run through any hole in a block, thimble, cleat, ring-bolt, cringle, etc., as the end of a rope.
  5. n. A bird, the female of the ruff, Machetes pugnax, See Pavoncella, and cut under ruff.
  6. To run (a ship) through narrow channels in a shoal or through openings in an ice-pack, after the fashion of a rope through the hole in a block, etc.

Wiktionary

  1. n. historical Any of several local officials, with varying responsibilities.
  2. n. Canada The president of a township or municipal district council.
  3. n. military, historical A proposed but unadopted commissioned rank of the Royal Air Force equivalent to wing commander.
  4. v. nautical To pass a rope through a hole or opening, especially so as to fasten it.
  5. n. A female of the species Philomachus pugnax, a highly gregarious, medium-sized wading bird of Eurasia; the male is a ruff.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) The female of the ruff.
  2. v. (Naut.) To pass, as the end of a pope, through any hole in a block, thimble, cleat, ringbolt, cringle, or the like.
  3. n. an officer, steward, bailiff, or governor; -- used chiefly in compounds

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. fasten by passing through a hole or around something
  2. v. pass a rope through
  3. v. pass through a hole or opening
  4. n. female ruff

Etymologies

  1. Old English rēfa, an aphetism of ġerēfa. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Old English gerēfa.Origin unknown.Probably alteration of ruff1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. thread

hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. pass through
  1. ruff
  1. philomachus pugnax

same context (18)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. sompnour
  2. shipman
  3. apparitor
  1. process-server
  2. grumpiness
  3. bailiff
  1. pedlar
  2. victualer
  3. outskirt
  1. carcanet
  2. seneschal
  3. well-starched
  1. garret-window
  2. sailmaker
  3. procureur
  1. quarry-man
  2. burgesses
  3. gamekeeper

rhymes (42)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Eve
  2. Kleve
  3. Neave
  4. Rajiv
  5. Steve
  6. achieve
  7. aggrieve
  8. aleve
  1. believe
  2. bereave
  3. cleave
  4. cleve
  5. conceive
  6. deceive
  7. disbelieve
  8. eave
  1. eve
  2. greave
  3. greve
  4. grieve
  5. heave
  6. interleave
  7. interweave
  8. leave
  1. leve
  2. misconceive
  3. misperceive
  4. naive
  5. neve
  6. peeve
  7. perceive
  8. preconceive
  1. reave
  2. receive
  3. relieve
  4. reprieve
  5. retrieve
  6. sleeve
  7. steve
  8. stieve
  1. vive
  2. weave

reverse dictionary (24)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. town-reeve
  2. reve
  3. hog-constable
  4. rove
  1. grieve
  2. hold
  3. viol-block
  4. quarter-blocks
  1. Bloor
  2. bollock-block
  3. churchreeve
  4. gerefa
  1. greeve
  2. jack-block
  3. bee
  4. riding
  1. ruff
  2. shire reeve
  3. amendment
  4. heart
  1. Muggletonian
  2. pavoncella
  3. reve-land
  4. shire

tags (3)

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  1. medieval
  1. eee
  1. bird

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  • chained_bear senior officer of a borough Aug 26, 2008

  • yarb ...carrying the line high aloft and then reeving it downwards through a block towards the tub, so as in the act of coiling to free it from all possible wrinkles and twists.

    - Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 60 Jul 25, 2008

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‘reeve’ has been looked up 2725 times, added to 19 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 8.