cropper

American  

[krop-er] / ˈkrɒp ər /

noun

1. a person or thing that crops.

2. a person who raises a crop.

3. a person who cultivates land for its owner in return for part of the crop; sharecropper.

4. a plant that furnishes a crop.

5. a cloth-shearing machine.

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idioms

1. come a cropper,

   1. to fail; be struck by some misfortune.

      His big deal came a cropper.

   2. to fall headlong, especially from a horse.

cropper British  

/ ˈkrɒpə /

noun

1. a person who cultivates or harvests a crop

2. 1. a cutting machine for removing the heads from castings and ingots

   2. a guillotine for cutting lengths of bar or strip

3. a machine for shearing the nap from cloth

4. a plant or breed of plant that will produce a certain kind of crop under specified conditions

   a poor cropper on light land

5. (often capital) a variety of domestic pigeon with a puffed-out crop

6. informal

   1. to fall heavily

   2. to fail completely

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Etymology

Origin of cropper

First recorded in 1475–85; crop + -er ¹

Example Sentences

Reading the first few sentences of your letter, one thing was obvious: You and your sister would come a cropper on the subject of the fair market value of this house.

From MarketWatch

And countless analyses have described how much the stock market’s advance owes to the AI-driven gains of the technology megacap names, and how much it will hurt if it comes a cropper.

From Barron's

They both ended up in hospital after coming a cropper in the parents' race.

From BBC

But Lulu's show came a cropper in 1969 when she booked the Jimi Hendrix Experience as her musical guests.

From BBC

Manchester United are yet to come a cropper on the road in this season’s Premier League and here’s a mighty fine chance to make it 14 undefeated trips on the spin.

From The Guardian

Related Words

• barrier
• bug
• crunch
• difficulty
• disadvantage
• drawback
• glitch
• hitch
• holdup
• hurdle
• impediment
• inconvenience
• obstacle
• stumbling block