reeve

• IPA^(key): /ɹiːv/
• Rhymes: -iːv

From Middle English reve, from Old English rēfa, an aphetism of ġerēfa (also groefa), perhaps dissimilated from Proto-Germanic *grēfijô (“officer, official”). Compare Danish greve, Swedish greve, Dutch graaf, German Graf. Role, and later word, mostly replaced by bailiff, of Anglo-Norman origin.

reeve (plural reeves)

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

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

2. (Canada) The president of a township or municipal district council.
3. (military, historical) A proposed but unadopted commissioned rank of the Royal Air Force equivalent to wing commander.
   • 1936, The Periodical (Oxford University Press), volumes 21–22, 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, dialectal) 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, 1985, p.98:

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

reeve (plural reeves)

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

• evere

From Old English rēfa.

reeve

1. Alternative form of reve

From Old English rēafian.

reeve

1. Alternative form of reven