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

Kreinbrink turned her experience into a wellness retreat business where people travel to Tuscany with her to harvest olives for olive oil, make wine and craft cheese on the farm, alongside local farmers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026

But plants further away were largely intact, with enough green leaves for their grapes to continue to mature in time for harvest next week.

From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026

"Farmers need to quickly harvest grains from the fields, not to lose the crop. They need to be able to sell the crop they harvested and reinvest money in the next production cycle."

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

The harvest of barley, oats and rapeseed, which are used in beer, breakfast cereals and vegetable oil, is estimated to drop to just 19.5 million tonnes, the worst since records began in 1984.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

We have a pitiful harvest of wheat and vegetables from our gardens, but the Indians often bring us food from their own harvests to trade.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone

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

"That's unthinkable compared to only a decade ago and it will be one of the earliest harvests on record," he said, adding yields were a third lower than normal.

From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026

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

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

These are not abstract changes on a map: they could affect harvests, water supplies and the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

There were no harvests of any kind that year and everywhere people starved and were hungry and were angry at what had befallen them yet again.

From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

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

The pristine farms, forests, ocean and rivers serve as the country’s pantry, where Māori food is regional, and ingredients are harvested based on seasonality and availability.

From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026

Antivenom is manufactured by providing a small dose of the harvested venom into either a sheep or horse, which trigger’s the animal’s immune system into creating antibodies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

More frequently, his crops shrivel before they can be harvested.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

The Rupp property is on a rise, an exposed plateau, from which he could see the harvested, glowing land of River Valley Farm—scenery that occupied him for perhaps an hour.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

"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

How AQR perfected tax-loss harvesting to help the rich get richer.

From Slate ● Aug. 8, 2026

Moisture content has to be at a specific level for harvesting different crops.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

Farming is simply the methodical harvesting of sunlight, using plants as grudging intermediaries.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Related Words

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