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.

---

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

---

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

---

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

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

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

Indigenous Andean communities were the first to domesticate the starch-rich crop, turning it into a dietary staple long before potatoes spread around the world.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026

“We were low on submissions,” says Angel Gamboa Bryant, nominated for “The Upshaws,” of this year’s crop.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

To be fair, this is precisely what the new crop of reform candidates say they want to fix.

From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026

World food prices rose in July as heatwaves and supply disruptions in the Middle East and Black Sea regions pushed up prices and lowered crop yields, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Danver land backed up to the Gantry ranch, so those families drew their battle lines in the dirt—the Danvers screaming crop damage, the Gantrys shouting fence cutting.

From "Worth" by A. LaFaye

Delivering droplets onto the parched crops requires meticulous preparation to identify suitable clouds.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

Millions of pounds of paraquat pesticide are sprayed annually on almonds, grapes, cotton and other crops, primarily in the San Joaquin Valley.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

Massive corn and soybean crops have made livestock feed—the top expense when raising a chicken—cheap.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

Nature reserves have gone up in flames, blazes have ruined farmers' fields and crops, and deliberate fires started in parks and beauty spots have grown out of control.

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

But then I didn’t know that Uncle Chester hadn’t had bumper crops.

From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson

"I think we just cropped it a little bit on the sides," he said.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

The image was cropped, enhanced to improve contrast, and corrected to remove lens artifacts.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026

However, this is not the first time the comparison with our Scandinavian pals has cropped up.

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

A wide river of cropped hair, crisp T-shirts, and adrenaline stretching almost 500 feet to Herndon, where they’re held back by an invisible dam about to burst.

From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2026

Her chestnut hair was cropped just above the shoulders and swayed ever so slightly due to the motion of the train.

From "City Spies" by James Ponti

Yet good Gentlemen, looke well about you, and remember how Tiberius plaid the Fox with the Senate of Rome, and how Fabius Maximus cropt his ears for his cunning.

From The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America by Nathaniel Ward

Iason: a cropt, and rather dirty copy: which formerly belonged to Gulstone.

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

It has, however, been bound in wretched taste, some fifty years ago, and is a good deal cropt in the binding.

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

In other words, it is a palpably cropt copy.

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

Piereshy, which a mule had cropt from a wild shrub.

From Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2) Or A Discourse of Forest Trees by John Nisbet

So far, the bad loans are cropping up primarily in healthcare companies, like dental-service provider Affordable Care, or businesses affected by higher oil prices, including plastic-film maker Loparex.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

Versions have already been cropping up across the UK, including in Manchester, external, at Alex's Bakery.

From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026

The process got more mechanized through the back half of the American Century—out with the cover cropping, in with the monocrop, packed tight as can be.

From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026

Issues within the deal are already cropping up.

From Salon ● Apr. 8, 2026

Off of 1-64 and back on the turnpike, the signs for Capitol Street started cropping up again.

From "Missing May" by Cynthia Rylant

Related Words

• output
• produce
• product
• yield