View source for Reave - Reeve

'''Reave''' and '''reeve''' {{Bridges}}

Both '''reave''' and''' reeve''' are pronounced to rhyme with 'leave', {{IPA|liːv}}. There is also the [[homophonous]] '''reive''' (sometimes '''rieve'''). The [[past forms]] of the commonest 'reave' are both '''reaved''', although a "chiefly ''poet[ic]''" [[past participle]] '''reft''' is recorded, as '''bereft''' is a [[past participle]] of '''[[bereave]]'''. When talking of death, use '''bereaved'''; loss of other kinds can leave the loser '''bereft''' ("she was bereft of her senses by this sudden news"; jilted lovers may be '''bereft''' of sleep).
*Of the three [[verb]]s 'to '''reave'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> listed in ''[[OED]]'' (2009), one ('poke into', 'pry'; [[past forms]] '''reaved''') is obsolete (and rare); one ('to tear the roof off [a building, etc]; [[past forms]] '''reuvved''') is [[dialect]]al (and also rare); and a third ('to cleave', 'to split in two'; [[past forms]] '''reft'''), though slightly less rare historically is little heard nowadays. 
**There is a [[noun]] '''reave''' with a technical use in archaeology: "A long low boundary wall or bank of a type found esp[ecially] on Dartmoor, in Devon" (''[[OED]]'', 2009)
**The commonest '''reave''' is mostly now used in writing of Scotland and Scottish history: 'to reave' is 'to steal' or 'rob', usually with violence and in numbers; it can mean 'to raid'. It is mostly used in Scots, usually written '''rieve''' or '''reive''' (see below).
*The [[verb]] 'to '''reeve'''<nowiki>'</nowiki> is essentially a nautical term. It means 'to pass [e.g. a rope] through [a pulley, block or ring, etc.]'. there are occasional [[figurative]] uses, for example of a ship 'threading' (or inching cautiously) its way through pack ice.
*''[[OED]]'' records four [[noun]]s spelled '''reeve''', of which two, 'a string or rope [e.g. of onions]' or 'a long strip', 'a wrinkle' or 'a ridge' - this may be coincidental with the [[noun]] '''reave''' above - and 'a walled enclosure', 'a pen', 'a yard' are rare enough for AWE to avoid. This leaves two meanings that may be useful in academic English:
**in history, and in some archaic law, a '''reeve''' was a high official, from [[Anglo-Saxon]] times. In towns, the chief magistrate was the '''[[borough]]-reeve''' or '''port-reeve'''; in counties, the '''shire-reeve''' has become the [[sheriff]]
**in ornithology and other life sciences, the '''reeve''' is the hen-bird, or female, of the sandpiper species ''Philomachus pugnax'', of which the cock is called a '''[[ruff]]'''
*The [[verb]] 'to '''reive'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>, also spelled '''rieve''', is the form predominant in Scotland of the [[verb]] to '''reave''' in the sense 'to steal' or 'rob'.
**The derived [[agent noun]] '''reiver''' (or '''riever''') means 'a robber', 'a raider', 'a plunderer'. The '''reivers''' most commonly spoken of are those, more fully called '''Border Reivers''', who lived in the lawless moorlands on the borders of England and Scotland and who, until the accession of [[James VI]] of Scotland to the English throne, as [[James I]] in 1603, and the subsequent century of struggle to establish the rule of law, based a large part of their economic activity on cattle rustling, horse theft, kidnapping and ransom, as well as the casual despoiling of property. Many of the exploits of these marauders are recorded (and embellished) in the Border [[ballad]]s, and thereafter romanticizd by such writers as [[Sir Walter Scott]]. It is largely due to the activities of the '''reivers''' that the area of the Borders became known as the '''[[Debatable Lands]]''': neither government could enforce law and order, particularly where nationality of any particular felon was hard to establish.
**There were also
***'''sea reivers''' - a 16th century way of talking about pirates. In Iowa, '''reivers''' were river pirates, particularly the brigands on the Missouri river in the 19th century.

[[Category:disambig]]
[[Category:nautical]]
[[Category:clarification of meanings]]
[[Category:Alternative spellings‏‎]]
[[Category:English literature]]
[[Category:UK history]]