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

---

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

---

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

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)

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

One witness told the Reuters news agency he believed the children on board were travelling with farm owners and labourers who were heading to work on a rice harvest.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

A trucking company can’t quickly replace its fleet, and a farmer cannot stop using diesel during harvest.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

"Without irrigation, this area would basically be lost for the harvest," he said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026

Repeated heatwaves after a warmer than usual spring have led to predictions of the worst harvest since records began.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

A generation later, as wheat plants multiplied and spread, the harvest camp might have lasted for five weeks, then six, and finally it became a permanent village.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

The heat is threatening harvests across the Continent, raising the spectre of soaring food prices.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

The effects of the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz are compounded by expectations of a strong El Nino, which could disrupt harvests across key farming regions and further tighten global supplies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026

It added that the impacts are already being felt, including low river flows, early harvests and high risk of wildfires.

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

Strong events can disrupt harvests, reduce crop yields and lift global food prices.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

Then Wang Lung forgot his son, for the harvests, except what the locusts had consumed, were fair enough and by now he had gained once more what he had spent on the woman Lotus.

From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

“Meta harvested kids data. That’s how Meta makes money,” O’Neill said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

The poultry industry has for years prioritized breeding bigger chickens, aiming to increase the amount of products harvested from each bird.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

If you take a loaf of bread as an example, first the grain is grown, harvested, milled and stored until it is ready to be taken to a factory.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

"This year is historic because the grapes have never been harvested in July before," said Matteo Castellani, head of the Coldiretti farming union for Casteggio, south of Pavia.

From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026

When the hayfields were lush and ready to be harvested, Roz fired up the Mower and the Baler.

From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown

The agency intends to rescind a 2001 rule that blocked most development and timber harvesting in certain national forests, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

Some winegrowers elsewhere in Germany already started harvesting in the second week of August, which is exceptionally early, industry group the German Wine Institute said this week.

From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026

"Cytology brushes can be used when dry and do an excellent job of harvesting cellular material without damaging the integrity of the artifact being sampled," says Breen.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

A short distance away from Al-Louh, a group of farmers was harvesting eggplants even though they were still unripe, knowing they probably wouldn’t get another chance.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026

Farmers had finished harvesting their soybeans, milo, and alfalfa and had planted their winter wheat.

From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool

Related Words

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