Home › Glossary › Letter R

reave

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

To rob, plunder, or deprive forcibly—implying violent loss, often in tragic or historical narratives.

Detailed Definition
“Reave” implies violent theft—reaving raiders, death reaves life. In epic poetry, it describes wartime loss. The term’s brutality suits lament. Poets use it to express irrevocable deprivation, where reaving severs bonds, reinforcing themes of vulnerability, fate, and the fragility of possession in narrative and elegiac traditions.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The pirates came to reave the village,” in a border ballad; In Old English-inspired verse: “To reave and rend, and leave no trace”; “They sought to reave his honor, not his gold”; “The frost will reave the last leaf”; “Reave not hope from the dying”; The law reaved him of freedom, not dignity.
Additional Notes
“Reave” (Old English “reafian”) connotes violent dispossession; in Anglo-Saxon or border balladry, “reavers” steal cattle or lives, framing theft as warfare and loss as irrevocable rupture.
Also Known As
rob plunder steal
Skip to main content