reaper

plural reapers

1. One who reaps; a person employed to harvest crops from the fields by reaping.

   Even as we looked some rumour seemed to have spread, for we saw the reapers hurrying from the fields.

   1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC

2. A machine used to harvest crops.
3. abbreviationcapitalizedellipsisoftenEllipsis of Grim Reaper.

   Don't fear the Reaper / We'll be able to fly

   1976, Buck Dharma, “Don't Fear the Reaper”, performed by Blue Öyster Cult

   3 more examples

   Thereafter when their cups were brimmed anew with foaming wine the Red Foliot spake among them and said, “O ye lords of Witchland, will you that I speak a dirge in honour of Gorice the King that the dark reaper hath this day gathered?”

   1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 31

   Why is the Grim Reaper a man? True, the noun ending would theoretically allow us to visualize the reaper as a woman as well, but we don't.

   1999, Karl S. Guthke, The Gender of Death: A Cultural History in Art and Literature, page 7

   She told me she wanted to meet the reaper I had only done her a favor She didn't deserve to die But I deserved to kill her

   2014, “Graveyard Shift”, performed by The Acacia Strain

4. A recluse spider (Loxosceles and Sicarius spp.).

plural reapers

1. IndiaobsoleteEach of the small laths laid across the rafters of a sloping roof to bear the tiles.