1. To cut with a sickle, scythe, or reaping machine, as grain; to gather, as a harvest, by cutting. When ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field. (Lev. 9)
2. To gather; to obtain; to receive as a reward or harvest, or as the fruit of labour or of works; in a good or a bad sense; as, to reap a benefit from exertions. Why do I humble thus myself, and, suing For peace, reap nothing but repulse and hate? (milton)
3. To clear or a crop by reaping; as, to reap a field.
4. To deprive of the beard; to shave. Reaping hook, an instrument having a hook-shaped blade, used in reaping; a sickle; in a specific sense, distinguished from a sickle by a blade keen instead of serrated.
Origin: OE. Repen, AS. Ripan to seize, reap; cf. D. Rapen to glean, reap, G. Raufen to pluck, Goth. Raupjan, or E. Ripe.