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 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 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

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

Gregory said Rothamsted's founders were "genuinely forward thinking" because they kept crop and soil samples.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

The agency then tests a sample of the crop or a batch of a product looking for whatever is causing people to get sick.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

But many crop losses are covered through the heavily subsidized federal crop-insurance program.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026

OpenAI faces intense competition, not only from Anthropic and other frontier model makers, but from those offering a new crop of increasingly sophisticated open-source or open-weight models.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

“Of what is this fine crop to consist, ma’am?”

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

To the extent that significant unavoidable and genuinely catastrophic physical and financial damage to Florida crops caused by severe weather has not been addressed by other programs, federal help may be warranted.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026

Farms in the Imperial Valley, which produce crops from hay to vegetables, depend entirely on the river.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

He also wants to build so-called "mega-prisons" and use pesticides to eradicate coca crops.

From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026

In Europe, where farmers replaced cotton with other crops centuries ago, countries have long relied on China for linters, and for manufactured guncotton.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

Knowing she wouldn’t stand by to watch cattle trample our crops, my fear turned to confusion and I sidled up to Ma.

From "Worth" by A. LaFaye

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

From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026

Interestingly these details cropped up in England's opening goal against Mexico.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 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

With many of the fastest-growing companies remaining private for years, a cottage industry of secondary-share sale platforms has cropped up.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

“Of course there isn’t,” said Harry, who became angry every time this subject cropped up.

From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling

The present is a beautiful, white, sound copy, and yet probably somewhat cropt.

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

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 Dibdin, Thomas Frognall

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

From Krindlesyke by Gibson, Wilfrid Wilson

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 Dibdin, Thomas Frognall

The present copy is severely cropt at top and bottom, but has a good side marginal breadth.

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

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

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where the weakening credits are, but winners and losers are cropping up everywhere as Wall Street questions many industries.

From Barron's ● Mar. 2, 2026

“It keeps cropping up, doesn’t it?” she said.

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

Related Words

• output
• produce
• product
• yield