▪ I. † reft, n.1 Sc. Obs. rare.
[Alteration of reif, after the pa. pple. of reave v.1, or on analogy of theft.]
Robbery.
| 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 132 Suppos that gude war nouthir tane be violence, fors, na reft. 1552 Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 10 Resettaris of theft and reft. |
▪ II. reft, n.2 rare.
[Alteration of rift, after the pa. pple. of reave v.2, or on analogy of cleft.]
A rift, fissure.
| 1811 Pinkerton Petral. I. 495 It..had most probably dropped into a reft, afterwards filled by stalactitic matter. 1851 Angus Serm. viii. (1862) 156 The mountain has been shivered..; and spiritual churches..have come out of the enormous reft. |
▪ III. reft, ppl. a.1
[See reave v.1]
Robbed, bereft of something.
| 1847 Lytton Lucretia (1853) 257 Through all this the reft tigress mourned her stolen whelp. |
▪ IV. reft, ppl. a.2
[See reave v.2]
Split, cleft.
| 1763 Museum Rust. I. lxxx. 336 If..it should not be convenient to the farmer to get these wicker hurdles, but he should be obliged to take up with those made of reft stuff in form of a gate [etc.]. |