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To take away by violence or by stealth; to snatch away; to rob; to despoil; to bereave. [Archaic]. "To reave his life." Spenser. He golden apples raft of the dragon. Chaucer. By privy stratagem my life at home. Chapman. To reave the orphan of his patrimony. Shak. The heaven caught and reft him of his tongue. Tennyson.…

One who reaves. [Archaic]

To take away. [Obs.] Shall move you to bereave my life. Marlowe.

The state of being bereaved; deprivation; esp., the loss of a relative by death.

One who bereaves.

A grove. [Obs.] Spenser.

The sediment of melted tallow. It is made into cakes for dogs' food. In Scotland it is called cracklings. [Written also graves.]

Same as Thrave. [Obs.]

Unbereft. [R.]

To unwind; to disentangle; to loose. [Obs.] Spenser.

Not torn, split, or parted; not torn to pieces. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

of Bereave.

The object of watchful attention or anxiety. Right sorrowfully mourning her bereaved cares. Spenser.

ve, as thy last memorial to the age, One classic drama, and reform the stage. Byron. Mr. Greaves may justly be reckoned a classical author on this subject [Roman weights and coins]. Arbuthnot.

sed in a good sense. [Archaic] Covetous of wisdom and fair virtue. Shak. Covetous death bereaved us all, To aggrandize one funeral. Emerson.

The state of being deprived; privation; loss; want; bereavement.

To dispossess; to bereave; to divest; to hinder from possessing; to debar; to shut out from; -- with a remoter object, usually preceded by of. God hath deprived her of wisdom. Job xxxix. 17. It was seldom that anger deprived him of power over himself. Macaulay.

; deeply dejected and dispirited; hopelessly sad; comfortless; filled with grief; as, a bereaved and disconsolate parent. One morn a Peri at the gate Of Eden stood disconsolate. Moore. The ladies and the knights, no shelter nigh, Were dropping wet, disconsolate and wan. Dryden.

Greaves; armor for the legs. [Obs.] Spenser.

m, of barnacles, grass, etc., and pay it over with pitch; -- so called because graves or greaves was formerly used for this purpose.