1. reap the whirlwind - Verb
2. reap the whirlwind - Phrase
Ellipsis of sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
(idiomatic) To suffer bad consequences for one's actions.
Source: en.wiktionary.orgWhen men sow the wind it is rational to expect that they will reap the whirlwind. Frederick Douglass
They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind. Arthur Travers Harris
Do good to them that hate you" (an exhortation presumably intended for the capitalist as well as for the laborer), another statement of the same rule is, "They that sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind." A. J. Muste
They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind. Scottish Proverb
He that sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind. English Proverb