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crop

[krop]
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noun
  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 hair style.
  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), cropped or (Archaic) cropt; crop·ping.
  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.
  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.
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verb (used without object), cropped or (Archaic) cropt; crop·ping.
  1. to bear or yield a crop or crops.
  2. to feed by cropping or grazing.
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Verb Phrases
  1. 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.
  2. crop up, to appear, especially suddenly or unexpectedly: A new problem cropped up.
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Origin of crop

before 900; Middle English, Old English: “sprout, ear of wheat (or other grain), paunch, crown of a tree”; cognate with German Kropf; see croup2
Related formscrop·less, adjectivenon·crop, adjectiveun·cropped, adjectivewell-cropped, adjective

Synonym study

1. 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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

shavepruneshearmowchopparehewtruncateclipreducetopshortendisengagesniplopslashcurtaildetachskivepollard

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British Dictionary definitions for cropping

crop

noun
  1. the produce of cultivated plants, esp cereals, vegetables, and fruit
    1. the amount of such produce in any particular season
    2. the yield of some other farm producethe lamb crop
  3. a group of products, thoughts, people, etc, appearing at one time or in one seasona crop of new publications
  4. the stock of a thonged whip
  5. short for riding crop
    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 hairstyleSee 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 crops, cropping or cropped (mainly tr)
  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 cropthe 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)
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See also crop out, crop up

Word Origin

Old English cropp; related to Old Norse kroppr rump, body, Old High German kropf goitre, Norwegian kröypa to bend
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cropping

crop

n.

Old English cropp "bird's craw," also "head or top of a sprout or herb." The common notion is "protuberance." Cognate with Old High German kropf, Old Norse kroppr. Meaning "harvest product" is c.1300, probably through the verbal meaning "cut off the top of a plant" (c.1200).

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crop

v.

"cut off the top of a plant," c.1200, from crop (n.). The general meaning of "to cut off" is mid-15c. Related: Cropped; cropping. Women's fashion crop top is attested from 1984.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with cropping

crop

In addition to the idioms beginning with crop

  • crop out
  • crop up

also see:

  • cream of the crop
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.