All 3 Uses of
scythe
in
Moby Dick
- In short, like many inland reapers and mowers, who go into the farmers' meadows armed with their own scythes—though in no wise obliged to furnish them—even so, Queequeg, for his own private reasons, preferred his own harpoon.†
Chpt 13-15
- As morning mowers, who side by side slowly and seethingly advance their scythes through the long wet grass of marshy meads; even so these monsters swam, making a strange, grassy, cutting sound; and leaving behind them endless swaths of blue upon the yellow sea.†
Chpt 58-60
- Aye, and rust amid greenness; as last year's scythes flung down, and left in the half-cut swaths—Starbuck!†
Chpt 130-132 *
Definitions:
-
(1)
(scythe) a tool for cutting grass that has a curved blade and a long handle that is held with both hands
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Much more rarely, scythe can be used as a verb to reference the cutting of weeds or tall grasses (such as hay or wheat) with a scythe. Metaphorically, the verb form can be used to describe cutting through anything as in "scythed through the problems in less than a week."