# reap

/ˈɹip/ (US) · /ɹˈiːp/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/reap
Updated: 2026-06-20

## Senses

### 1. to harvest crops

verb · CEFR B2

to cut and collect grain or other crops from a field when they are ready.

For teachers: to harvest a crop by cutting it with a tool or machine. Transitive, often associated with traditional agriculture.

- The farmers worked from dawn until dusk to reap the wheat before the storm arrived.
- In the pre-industrial era, entire villages would gather to reap the barley by hand, ensuring the grain was stored before the autumn rains.

Usage: Often used with 'harvest' as a direct object.

### 2. to get a reward or result

verb · CEFR B2

to get something, like a benefit or a punishment, because of something you did in the past.

For teachers: to obtain or receive something as a consequence of previous actions. Frequently appears in the idiom 'reap the benefits' or 'reap the rewards'.

- After years of hard work, she is finally starting to reap the rewards of her success.
- The company began to reap the benefits of its early investment in renewable energy, seeing a significant rise in quarterly profits.

Usage: Commonly used in the metaphorical phrase 'reap what you sow'.

### 3. to manage child processes

verb · CEFR C2 · Technical

to clean up a finished computer process so it does not waste memory.

For teachers: to acknowledge the exit status of a terminated child process, removing its entry from the system process table.

- The system needs to reap the finished processes to keep the server running smoothly.
- If the parent process fails to reap its children, the system may become cluttered with zombie processes that consume process IDs.

Teaching tip: This is a highly specialized term in Unix-like operating systems; learners will likely only encounter it in systems programming.

### 4. a bundle of grain

noun · CEFR C2 · Archaic · Literary

a small bundle of grain that has just been cut.

For teachers: a handful or bundle of grain laid down by a reaper during the harvesting process.

- He left a small reap of corn on the ground for the birds to find.
- The field was dotted with reaps of golden wheat, waiting to be gathered into larger sheaves for transport.

Usage: Rare in modern English; primarily found in historical or agricultural texts.

## Examples

- 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.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.