reeve

• IPA^(key): /ɹiːv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːv
• Homophone: reave

From Middle English reve, from Old English rēfa, an aphetism of ġerēfa (also groefa), from Proto-West Germanic *garāfijō (“officer, official”). Compare Danish greve, Swedish greve, Dutch graaf, German Graf.

The role, and eventually the word, was mostly replaced by bailiff, of Anglo-Norman origin.

• reve (obsolete)

reeve (plural reeves)

1. (historical) Any of several local officials, with varying responsibilities.
   • 1999, Bede, edited by Judith McClure and Roger Collins, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People‎^[1], Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 99:

     His first convert was the reeve of the city of Lincoln called Blæcca, ...

2. (Canada) The president of a township or municipal district council.
3. (military, historical) The holder of a proposed but unadopted commissioned rank of the Royal Air Force, equivalent to wing commander.
   • 1936, The Periodical, volumes 21-22, Oxford University Press, page 67:

     A list of new titles was manufactured as follows: Ensign, Lieutenant, Flight-Leader, Squadron-Leader, Reeve, Banneret, Fourth-Ardian, Third-Ardian, Second-Ardian, Ardian, Air Marshal. […] “Reeve”, perhaps, savoured a little too much of legal authority.

• (medieval official): provost

• sheriff

• bailiff

Apparent alternative form of reef (“to pull or yank strongly”, verb) or from Dutch reven (“to take in, insert”).

reeve (third-person singular simple present reeves, present participle reeving, simple past and past participle reeved or rove)

1. (nautical, dialect) To pass (a rope) through a hole or opening, especially so as to fasten it.
   • 1930, William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, Library of America, published 1985, page 98:

     "Let the rope go," he says. With his other hand he reaches down and reeves the two turns from the stanchion.

Variant of dialectal ree, but of obscure ultimate origin.

reeve (plural reeves)

2. A female of the species Philomachus pugnax, a highly gregarious, medium-sized wading bird of Eurasia; the male is a ruff.

• evere

reeve

1. Alternative form of reve

reeve

1. Alternative form of reven