reap

as you sow, so shall you reap

Your actions dictate the consequences. The phrase is Biblical in origin. Of course you're exhausted in class—you stay up too late! As you sow, so shall you reap. Of course you're being investigated for tax fraud—you've spent years trying to avoid paying them. As you sow, so shall you reap.

As you sow, so shall you reap,

and As a man sows, so shall he reap.

Prov. Things will happen to you good or bad, according to how you behave. (Biblical.) You should stop being so cruel to other people. As you sow, so shall you reap. Fred built an immense fortune by swindling others, but lost it all when someone swindled him. As a man sows, so shall he reap.

reap something from something

1. Lit. to harvest something from something. We reaped a fine harvest from our cornfields this year. They will reap nothing from their flooded fields.

2. Fig. to gain something from something. The students reaped a lot of information from their interview with the police chief. I hope to reap some good advice from the discussion.

sow the wind and reap the whirlwind

Prov. to start some kind of trouble that grows much larger than you planned. (Biblical.) our enemy has sown the wind by provoking this war, and they will reap the whirlwind when we vanquish them.

See also: and, reap, sow, whirlwind, wind

reap what you sow

to experience the results of your own actions If we neglect our environment, we will surely reap what we sow.

Usage notes: usually used to say that something bad is likely to result from an activity

Etymology: from the idea that the quality of the seeds that you sow (put into the ground) grow into the kind of plants that you are able to reap (cut and collect)

reap a/the harvest of something

to receive the good or bad results of past actions Homelessness is rising. We are reaping the harvest of a lack of investment in housing and social services.

reap the whirlwind

(American)

to have serious problems because you did something stupid in the past Having fired some of his best reporters, he's now reaping the whirlwind with rapidly declining newspaper sales.

You reap what you sow.

also As you sow, so shall you reap. (formal)

something that you say which means everything that happens to you is a result of your own actions If you treat your friends like that, of course they drop you. You reap what you sow in this life.

reap the whirlwind

Suffer the consequences. Hosea 8:7's “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” has come to mean that evil deeds in the past will come back to haunt you. Another biblical verse with a similar admonition is Galatians 6:7's “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (used as the expression, “you'll reap what you sow”), and Proverbs 11:29's “He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind.” As yet another indication how popular references have shifted from the sacred to the profane, the contemporary equivalent is “Be aware of what you do, or else it may come back and bite you in the ass.”

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Ballinger	['bælindʒə]
Chaleb	-	Biblical Latin, Biblical Greek
Owain	O-wien (Welsh, Welsh Mythology)	Welsh, Welsh Mythology, Arthurian Romance
Lachie	-	Scottish
Tino	TEE-no	Italian
Tillie	TIL-ee	English