reap
v.v. to gather a crop that has grown in a field. You use this word when you collect the fruit, grain, or vegetables you planted earlier.
v. to gather a mature crop from the land; to harvest. Transitive — typically takes a direct object referring to the produce or the field.
Farmers reap the wheat in late summer.
After months of careful tending, the gardeners finally reap the ripe tomatoes.
The company plans to reap the financial rewards of its early investment in renewable energy technology.
From Middle English repen, from Old English rēopan, rēpan, variants of Old English rīpan (“to reap”), from Proto-West Germanic rīpan, from Proto-Germanic rīpaną (compare West Frisian repe, Norwegian ripa (“to score, scratch”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyb- (“to snatch”).
The verb is transitive and takes a direct object.
- 01
reap the harvest
To receive the rewards of something to one's efforts; get out what one puts in.
- 02
reap the whirlwind
To suffer bad consequences for one's actions.
- 03
reap what one sows
To receive as a return or reward in the same measure as one's exertions or intentions, in a good or a bad sense; to receive justice or one's just deserts.