sickle

n. a tool with a short handle and a curved blade used for cutting grass or grain by hand.

n. an agricultural implement consisting of a curved, semicircular blade and a short handle, used for reaping grain or cutting tall grass.

“The farmer used a sharp sickle to cut the tall weeds at the edge of the field.”

“Before the advent of mechanical harvesters, laborers spent weeks in the fields using sickles to reap the wheat by hand.”

n. something that has a curved shape like a crescent moon.

n. an object or celestial body possessing a curved, tapering shape reminiscent of a sickle blade.

“A thin sickle of a moon hung low in the dark sky.”

“The poet described the silver sickle of the moon rising above the jagged mountain peaks.”

Literary

v. when red blood cells change into a curved shape because of a medical condition.

v. the process by which red blood cells assume an abnormal crescent or sickle shape, typically associated with sickle cell anemia.

“In patients with this disease, the red blood cells begin to sickle when oxygen levels are low.”

“The pathology is characterized by the tendency of hemoglobin to polymerize, causing the erythrocytes to sickle and obstruct capillary blood flow.”

Technical