harvest

American  

[hahr-vist] / ˈhɑr vɪst /

noun

• harvests
  plural

1. 

   the gathering of crops.

   Drought has delayed the harvest of corn, peanuts, potatoes, and other vegetables.

2. the season when ripened crops are gathered.

   All through springtime, summer, and harvest, she waited for him.

3. a crop or yield of one growing season.

   Our blackberries are on track to meet or exceed last year's harvest of 30 lbs.

4. a supply of anything gathered at maturity and stored.

   The silos held an abundant harvest of wheat.

5. the taking or removal of animals to be killed for food or other uses.

   Some have called the harvest of nautilus shells for jewelry and ornaments a “horrendous slaughter.”

6. the collection of any resource for future use.

   Rules were established to limit the harvest of forest resources for fuel and building materials.

7. the extraction of an organ or tissue from a body for the purpose of transplant or scientific research.

   The new method could improve the harvest of stem cells from umbilical cord blood.

8. the result or consequence of any act, process, or event.

   The journey yielded a harvest of wonderful memories.

   Synonyms:

   return, product, collection, accumulation

---

verb (used with object)

• harvests,
  present (3rd person singular)
• harvested,
  past participle,  past
• harvesting
  present participle

1. to gather (a crop or the like); reap.

   It’s time to harvest the corn.

2. to gather the crop from.

   The farmer hired a few day laborers to help harvest his fields.

3. to gain, win, or use (a prize, product, or result of any past act, process, etc.).

   The country hopes to harvest dividends from staging a problem-free Olympics next year.

4. to catch, take, or remove (animals), especially for food.

   Fishermen harvested hundreds of salmon from the river.

5. to collect (any resource) for future use.

   to harvest solar energy;

   spammers who harvest email addresses.

6. to extract (an organ or tissue) from a living or dead body, as for transplantation or research.

   to harvest a kidney;

   to harvest embryos.

verb (used without object)

• harvests,
  present (3rd person singular)
• harvested,
  past participle,  past
• harvesting
  present participle

1. to gather a crop; reap.

   We saw whole families out in the fields, harvesting.

harvest British  

/ ˈhɑːvɪst /

noun

1. the gathering of a ripened crop

2. the crop itself or the yield from it in a single growing season

3. the season for gathering crops

4. the product of an effort, action, etc

   a harvest of love

---

verb

1. to gather or reap (a ripened crop) from (the place where it has been growing)

2. (tr) to receive or reap (benefits, consequences, etc)

3. (tr) to remove (an organ) from the body for transplantation

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• harvestability
  noun
• harvesting
  noun
• preharvest
  noun
• reharvest
  verb
• half-harvested
  adjective
• harvestable
  adjective
• harvestless
  adjective
• postharvest
  adjective
• unharvested
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• harvests
  plural

Participles

• harvesting
  present
• harvested
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• harvest
  simple
• harvests
  simple
• have harvested
  perfect
• has harvested
  perfect
• am harvesting
  progressive
• are harvesting
  progressive
• is harvesting
  progressive
• have been harvesting
  perfect progressive
• has been harvesting
  perfect progressive

Past

• harvested
  simple
• had harvested
  perfect
• was harvesting
  progressive
• were harvesting
  progressive
• had been harvesting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will harvest
  simple
• will have harvested
  perfect
• will be harvesting
  progressive
• will have been harvesting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of harvest

First recorded before 950; Middle English; Old English hærfest; cognate with German Herbst “autumn”; akin to Greek karpós “fruit,” Latin carpere “to pluck” ( see carpe diem, carpel)

Explanation

The harvest is the time when you reap what you sow. As a verb, to harvest something means that you pick or gather it. You might harvest your sweet corn late in the summer. As a noun, harvest means the time of year when crops are ripe and ready to be gathered. The picked crop is also called a harvest: a bumper crop is a plentiful harvest, and a poor harvest is when things didn’t grow as well as expected. As a verb, to harvest something is to gather, trap, or cull it. You can harvest a soybean crop, you can harvest beaver pelts, or you can harvest tissues or organs for transplants.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

harvest harvests harvested harvesting

A growing cadre of volunteers increasingly helps with the next step, the actual harvest, scooping acorns off the ground and into bags and buckets.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

"We've just started the harvest season, and we very much need hands, but it's very hard to find them," Sholudko said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026

U.S. farmers will produce a record-breaking harvest of 4.52 billion bushels of soybeans in 2026, according to projections from the U.S.

From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026

France's Champagne region also saw its earliest-ever harvest due to the weather, something that could become the norm "in 10 to 15 years" because of climate change, according to the Comite Champagne industry association.

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026

Clare stood, resolving to rinse and hang the mushroom harvest later tonight, perhaps after Gingersnipes was gone.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

Once, border migration patterns resembled a loop: thousands of laborers, mostly men, commuted here once or twice a year from Mexico to jobs in the fields, then on to other jobs once harvests were over.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

Intensive farming practices themselves contribute to climate change, and farmland is increasingly being abandoned by producers who cannot make ends meet or survive harvests lost to extreme weather.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

Three winemakers earlier this month filed suit against the owner of Hundred Acre Wines, Jayson Woodbridge, and his company alleging that smoke from the wildfire ruined their harvests, the Press Democrat reported.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026

While Glidden harvests oysters even when ice forms on the Damariscotta, its tours run only through mid-October.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

And he bought three pigs and a flock of fowls to feed on the grains spilled from the harvests.

From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

Watch for the spikes in produce, meat and other perishable foods that have to be harvested and hauled on diesel-powered farm equipment and shipped on diesel-powered trucks.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

The poultry industry has for years prioritized breeding bigger chickens, aiming to increase the amount of products harvested from each bird.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

"Farmers need to quickly harvest grains from the fields, not to lose the crop. They need to be able to sell the crop they harvested and reinvest money in the next production cycle."

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

The pristine farms, forests, ocean and rivers serve as the country’s pantry, where Māori food is regional, and ingredients are harvested based on seasonality and availability.

From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026

Whenever Mary came to the shore, she harvested as many as she could, and now with three pairs of hands and eyes at work, there would be a feast.

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman

This year he's harvesting 3,500kg of the fruit, all of which is sold in the city of Bengalaru.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

Wealthy Americans are harvesting losses, considering accelerated charitable deductions and analyzing whether their Opportunity Zone investments have declined in value, advisers say.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

"It's about reminding us that we're harvesting some things, but we need to wait. We need to wait in stillness."

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

Only 11 percent supported opening more land for timber harvesting and mining.

From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026

Sugar work in Hawaii brought the same scene as took place in the Caribbean —the foreman on his horse, the gangs of workers harvesting the cane.

From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson

Related Words

• accumulate
• amass
• collect
• gather
• hoard
• mow
• pick
• pluck
• reap
• take in