crop

American  

[krop] / krɒp /

noun

• crops
  plural

1. the cultivated produce of the ground, while growing or when gathered.

   the wheat crop.

2. the yield of such produce for a particular season.

3. the yield of some other product in a season.

   the crop of diamonds.

4. a supply produced.

5. a collection or group of persons or things appearing or occurring together.

   this year's crop of students.

6. the stock or handle of a whip.

7. Also called riding crop. a short riding whip consisting of a stock without a lash.

8. Also called craw. Zoology.

   1. a pouch in the esophagus of many birds, in which food is held for later digestion or for regurgitation to nestlings.

   2. a chamber or pouch in the foregut of arthropods and annelids for holding and partly crushing food.

9. the act of cropping.

10. a mark produced by clipping the ears, as of cattle.

11. a close-cropped hairstyle.

12. a head of hair so cut.

13. an entire tanned hide of an animal.

14. Mining. an outcrop of a vein or seam.

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verb (used with object)

• crops,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cropped,
  past participle,  past
• cropt,
  past participle,  past (Archaic)
• cropping
  present participle

1. to cut off or remove the head or top of (a plant, grass, etc.).

2. to cut off the ends or a part of.

   to crop the ears of a dog.

3. to cut short.

   cropped t-shirts.

4. to clip the ears, hair, etc., of.

5. Photography. to cut off or mask the unwanted parts of (a print or negative).

6. to cause to bear a crop or crops.

7. to graze off (the tops of plants, grass, etc.).

   The sheep cropped the lawn.

verb (used without object)

• crops,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cropped,
  past participle,  past
• cropt,
  past participle,  past (Archaic)
• cropping
  present participle

1. to bear or yield a crop or crops.

2. to feed by cropping or grazing.

adjective

1. (of women’s casual garments) shorter than is usual.

   a crop top that bares your midriff;

   crop pants that end at mid-calf.

verb phrase

1. crop up to appear, especially suddenly or unexpectedly.

   A new problem cropped up.

2. crop out

   1. Geology, Mining. to rise to the surface of the ground.

      Veins of quartz crop out in the canyon walls.

   2. to become evident or visible; occur.

      A few cases of smallpox still crop out every now and then.

crop British  

/ krɒp /

noun

1. the produce of cultivated plants, esp cereals, vegetables, and fruit

2. 1. the amount of such produce in any particular season

   2. the yield of some other farm produce

      the lamb crop

3. a group of products, thoughts, people, etc, appearing at one time or in one season

   a crop of new publications

4. the stock of a thonged whip

5. short for riding crop

6. 1. a pouchlike expanded part of the oesophagus of birds, in which food is stored or partially digested before passing on to the gizzard

   2. a similar structure in insects, earthworms, and other invertebrates

7. the entire tanned hide of an animal

8. a short cropped hairstyle See also Eton crop

9. a notch in or a piece cut out of the ear of an animal

10. the act of cropping

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verb

1. to cut (hair, grass, etc) very short

2. to cut and collect (mature produce) from the land or plant on which it has been grown

3. to clip part of (the ear or ears) of (an animal), esp as a means of identification

4. (also intr) to cause (land) to bear or (of land) to bear or yield a crop

   the land cropped well

5. (of herbivorous animals) to graze on (grass or similar vegetation)

6. photog to cut off or mask unwanted edges or areas of (a negative or print)

crop Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing crop

• cream of the crop

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Synonym Usage

Crop, harvest, produce, yield refer to the return in food obtained from land at the end of a season of growth. Crop, the term common in agricultural and commercial use, denotes the amount produced at one cutting or for one particular season: the potato crop. Harvest denotes either the time of reaping and gathering, or the gathering, or that which is gathered: the season of harvest; to work in a harvest; a ripe harvest. Produce especially denotes household vegetables: Produce from the fields and gardens was taken to market. Yield emphasizes what is given by the land in return for expenditure of time and labor: There was a heavy yield of grain this year.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• cropless
  adjective
• noncrop
  adjective
• uncropped
  adjective
• well-cropped
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• crops
  plural

Participles

• cropping
  present
• cropped
  past
• cropt
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• crop
  simple
• crops
  simple
• have cropped
  perfect
• have cropt
  perfect
• has cropped
  perfect
• has cropt
  perfect
• am cropping
  progressive
• are cropping
  progressive
• is cropping
  progressive
• have been cropping
  perfect progressive
• has been cropping
  perfect progressive

Past

• cropped
  simple
• cropt
  simple
• had cropped
  perfect
• had cropt
  perfect
• was cropping
  progressive
• were cropping
  progressive
• had been cropping
  perfect progressive

Future

• will crop
  simple
• will have cropped
  perfect
• will have cropt
  perfect
• will be cropping
  progressive
• will have been cropping
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of crop

First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English crop, cropp “sprout, ear of wheat (or other grain), paunch, crown of a tree”; cognate with German Kropf; see croup ²

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Explanation

A crop is a large amount of one kind of fruit or vegetable that's grown on a farm. Your farmer uncle's corn crop might be especially large after a summer with plenty of rain. A major crop in parts of Asia is rice, while the coffee bean crop is important to the economics of several African and South American countries. A different kind of crop is the short whip that some riders use on horses — and when you crop something, you cut it short. You might decide to crop your hair at the beginning of the summer each year. The noun came first, originally defined as "the top of a sprout or herb."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

crop crops cropped cropt cropping

The country is responsible for nearly 40 percent of global cocoa output, while the crop accounts for 15 percent of GDP, supporting roughly five million people in a country of more than 33 million.

From Barron's ● Nov. 10, 2026

Jude Bellingham, too, is said to have been particularly candid in expressing his belief that this current crop of England players were more than capable of continuing to take the game to Argentina.

From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026

"DNA preservation is excellent in this case. This will help us learn more about the history of the domestication and spread of this crop soon."

From Science Daily ● Nov. 8, 2026

Because they don’t have brick-and-mortar operations, like banks, they can crop up with bare-bones business infrastructure.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026

If he declined Trip’s offer, Frank figured he would offend the guy and end up as sorghum or wheat or some other cash crop.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

Up to 80% of crops were destroyed in some parts of the country.

From BBC ● Nov. 11, 2026

Locals complain about elephants trampling crops and homes, and about crocodiles attacking people who go to rivers to wash or fish.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2026

Those ingredients are replacing rice grains as crops have been hit by dry weather in key producing countries in Asia, reducing harvests and driving up prices.

From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026

He said 1,600 grievances logged, mainly from farmers requesting compensation for construction impacts on their crops, were resolved.

From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2026

More agriculture meant more and more land was needed for planting crops and raising livestock.

From "Camp Panda" by Catherine Thimmesh

A cottage industry of charities and consultancies have cropped up to help claimants navigate the benefits claim system, which can be both byzantine and, critics say, gamable.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

It was cropped and adjusted to improve contrast, and lens artifacts were removed.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026

That still leaves a problem that cropped up time and again over the regular season and again in the NLDS: inconsistency atop the lineup.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

The trouble that has cropped up is a dispute between the managers of Parton’s ongoing business ventures, She’s Alive, and Parton’s nephew, Bryan Seaver.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026

His skin was dark and wrinkled, his cropped hair nearly white.

From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray

Of these, the vellum copy is much damaged in the principal illumination, and is also cropt in the binding.

From A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three by Thomas Frognall Dibdin

This is a sound and clean, but apparently cropt copy; in old blue morocco binding.

From A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three by Thomas Frognall Dibdin

I trust that cuddy hasn’t cropt your cashbox, Before your eldest son has got his portion.

From Krindlesyke by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

M. Ranner shewed me a sound, fair copy of the first Florentine Homer of 1488; but cropt, with red edges to the leaves.

From A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three by Thomas Frognall Dibdin

The German Bible by Mentelin is perfect; but wretchedly cropt, and dirty even to dinginess.

From A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three by Thomas Frognall Dibdin

Stories like this are cropping up more frequently now that major studios are coming to understand that viewers want original stories from new voices.

From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026

Deutsche Bank recently found the phrase “broad-based” cropping up repeatedly in earnings calls.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

Another name also cropping up frequently in conversations is another Miliband - Ed's brother David, a former foreign secretary.

From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026

The group's discussions see the same patterns keep cropping up.

From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026

I was pretty sure I knew everything about Constantine—she had one sister and grew up on a share- cropping farm in Corinth, Mississippi.

From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

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Related Words

• output
• produce
• product
• yield

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