Meaning
Experience consequences that correspond to one's earlier actions. Often negative, but the underlying agricultural analogy permits beneficial consequences too. Regional use: Late Middle English biblical translation; now widespread.
Origin
Galatians 6:7 uses farming as a moral analogy: whatever a person sows, that person will also reap. The Wycliffe Bible has a close Middle English version of the sentence. Both verbs were already ordinary agricultural words, but the verse made their cause-and-consequence pairing especially durable. The expression can refer to good results as well as punishment, although modern use is often warning or critical.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- As you sow, so shall you reap
Usage Examples
- Treat the apprentices well, because you reap what you sow.
- After years of mentoring apprentices, the firm reaped what it had sown when several became expert craftspeople.
- The firm ignored repeated warnings and eventually reaped what it had sown.