harvest

American  

[hahr-vist] / ˈhɑr vɪst /

noun

• harvests
  plural

1. 

   the gathering of crops.

   Drought has delayed the harvest of corn, peanuts, potatoes, and other vegetables.

2. the season when ripened crops are gathered.

   All through springtime, summer, and harvest, she waited for him.

3. a crop or yield of one growing season.

   Our blackberries are on track to meet or exceed last year's harvest of 30 lbs.

4. a supply of anything gathered at maturity and stored.

   The silos held an abundant harvest of wheat.

5. the taking or removal of animals to be killed for food or other uses.

   Some have called the harvest of nautilus shells for jewelry and ornaments a “horrendous slaughter.”

6. the collection of any resource for future use.

   Rules were established to limit the harvest of forest resources for fuel and building materials.

7. the extraction of an organ or tissue from a body for the purpose of transplant or scientific research.

   The new method could improve the harvest of stem cells from umbilical cord blood.

8. the result or consequence of any act, process, or event.

   The journey yielded a harvest of wonderful memories.

   Synonyms:

   return, product, collection, accumulation

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verb (used with object)

• harvests,
  present (3rd person singular)
• harvested,
  past participle,  past
• harvesting
  present participle

1. to gather (a crop or the like); reap.

   It’s time to harvest the corn.

2. to gather the crop from.

   The farmer hired a few day laborers to help harvest his fields.

3. to gain, win, or use (a prize, product, or result of any past act, process, etc.).

   The country hopes to harvest dividends from staging a problem-free Olympics next year.

4. to catch, take, or remove (animals), especially for food.

   Fishermen harvested hundreds of salmon from the river.

5. to collect (any resource) for future use.

   to harvest solar energy;

   spammers who harvest email addresses.

6. to extract (an organ or tissue) from a living or dead body, as for transplantation or research.

   to harvest a kidney;

   to harvest embryos.

verb (used without object)

• harvests,
  present (3rd person singular)
• harvested,
  past participle,  past
• harvesting
  present participle

1. to gather a crop; reap.

   We saw whole families out in the fields, harvesting.

harvest British  

/ ˈhɑːvɪst /

noun

1. the gathering of a ripened crop

2. the crop itself or the yield from it in a single growing season

3. the season for gathering crops

4. the product of an effort, action, etc

   a harvest of love

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verb

1. to gather or reap (a ripened crop) from (the place where it has been growing)

2. (tr) to receive or reap (benefits, consequences, etc)

3. (tr) to remove (an organ) from the body for transplantation

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• harvestability
  noun
• harvesting
  noun
• preharvest
  noun
• reharvest
  verb
• half-harvested
  adjective
• harvestable
  adjective
• harvestless
  adjective
• postharvest
  adjective
• unharvested
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• harvests
  plural

Participles

• harvesting
  present
• harvested
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• harvest
  simple
• harvests
  simple
• have harvested
  perfect
• has harvested
  perfect
• am harvesting
  progressive
• are harvesting
  progressive
• is harvesting
  progressive
• have been harvesting
  perfect progressive
• has been harvesting
  perfect progressive

Past

• harvested
  simple
• had harvested
  perfect
• was harvesting
  progressive
• were harvesting
  progressive
• had been harvesting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will harvest
  simple
• will have harvested
  perfect
• will be harvesting
  progressive
• will have been harvesting
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of harvest

First recorded before 950; Middle English; Old English hærfest; cognate with German Herbst “autumn”; akin to Greek karpós “fruit,” Latin carpere “to pluck” ( see carpe diem, carpel)

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Explanation

The harvest is the time when you reap what you sow. As a verb, to harvest something means that you pick or gather it. You might harvest your sweet corn late in the summer. As a noun, harvest means the time of year when crops are ripe and ready to be gathered. The picked crop is also called a harvest: a bumper crop is a plentiful harvest, and a poor harvest is when things didn’t grow as well as expected. As a verb, to harvest something is to gather, trap, or cull it. You can harvest a soybean crop, you can harvest beaver pelts, or you can harvest tissues or organs for transplants.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

harvest harvests harvested harvesting

The goal is to amplify returns while also creating more opportunities for tax losses to harvest.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

LA CROSSE, Wisconsin — September is both campaign season and parade season in Wisconsin, as communities across the state celebrate Oktoberfest and the harvest of fall crops like apples and pumpkins.

From Salon ● Oct. 13, 2026

Despite their popularity, these mushrooms face a longstanding problem that can make entire portions of a harvest difficult or impossible to sell.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026

On Thursday, Arias said at a City Council meeting that the timing of the arrests was “not a coincidence” because it is harvest season in Fresno, a major agricultural hub.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2026

The onion fields on the other side of the road were the most in need of harvest.

From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack

Across the South West, Tom Collins, who speaks for the NFU in Wiltshire, says most cereal farmers had seen harvests down "at least 30%".

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

That would have been especially troublesome for a community whose religious festivals were closely connected with agriculture, harvests, first fruits, and the seasonal cycle.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

Intensive farming practices themselves contribute to climate change, and farmland is increasingly being abandoned by producers who cannot make ends meet or survive harvests lost to extreme weather.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

But Spain and France have also been hit by heat waves that hurt harvests, and the Strait of Hormuz crisis has caused fertilizer costs to spiral.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

The chief claimed to serve the people by interceding for them with the gods and reciting the ritual formulas required to obtain rain, good harvests, and success in fishing.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

That Grynkewich’s reassurance was needed at all in Europe also marks a turnabout for an alliance that once believed it had won the Cold War and harvested a peace dividend.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

As the production of seafood has become more globalized, its supply chains have stretched longer, making it tougher for consumers and grocers to know whether it was harvested sustainably or legally.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

Dessert featured the two leaders and their fellow diners tucking into vanilla crémeux with sour cherry confit, with an accompanying ice cream "made with harvested White House honey".

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026

Food needs to be harvested, transported, stored, sold and — last but not least — purchased.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026

Kira left it where it grew and wondered if the women would know that it could be harvested for food.

From "Gathering Blue" by Lois Lowry

The Russian domestic supply crunch was caused in part by dwindling supply while demand picked up during the country’s massive wheat harvesting season.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

In the fields, the cost of diesel needed to run combines as farmers start harvesting soybeans, corn and other crops this month has skyrocketed more than 67 percent since February.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

Turning Hinoki roots into useful aroma products may provide a higher value use for material that is commonly left behind after timber harvesting.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

He said he had learned about a Benedictine Priory site "which is very interesting" and discovered there had been "a really remarkably large industry in harvesting seaweed".

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

It involved harvesting everything left on the plants after the first picking, including cotton bulbs, shells, and leaves.

From "The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child" by Francisco Jiménez

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Related Words

• accumulate
• amass
• collect
• gather
• hoard
• mow
• pick
• pluck
• reap
• take in

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