Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Reave

Reave (rēv) , transitive verb

[Anglo-Saxon reáfian, from reáf spoil, plunder, clothing, reófan to break (compare bireófan to deprive of); akin to German rauben to rob, Icelandic raufa to rob, rjūfa to break, violate, Gothic biráubōn to despoil, Latin rumpere to break; compare Sanskrit lup to break. r114. Compare Bereave, Rob, transitive verb, Robe, Rove, v. i., Rupture.]

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