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

In agriculture, the same knowledge could help researchers develop cereal crops that are less likely to fall over before harvest.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026

Several other attacks on Palestinians during the annual olive harvest have also been reported in the run-up to the elections.

From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026

As the harvest shifts, Maine's lobstermen are sailing out to deeper waters -- on bigger boats, using more diesel and crew.

From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 2026

Meanwhile, for those who like their coffee with sugar, excessive rainfall could hurt Brazil’s sugarcane harvest season, while India’s major sugarcane-growing states could experience drought, said Roemer.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026

“Yes, Jo, I think your harvest will be a good one,” began Mrs. March, frightening away a big black cricket that was staring Teddy out of countenance.

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

A powerful El Niño threatens to disrupt coffee harvests around the world, adding to farmers’ already steep production costs.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 22, 2026

Some 1,200 sheep are brought in to graze on the crops in between rice harvests, and they leave behind organic matter, which enriches the soil naturally.

From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026

Facing pressures from "massive increases" in costs for fuel and fertiliser and "very mediocre returns" on his harvests, he is now considering using more of his land for commercial crops.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

A weather pattern marked by warming water in the Pacific Ocean, El Niño tends to cause droughts in much of the world, threatening harvests for crops from sugar to wheat.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

Kira listened to the Singer’s voice as he sang the serene melody of plentiful harvests and celebratory feasting.

From "Gathering Blue" by Lois Lowry

Farmworkers – who harvested cotton, vegetables and fruits — organized and marched for roughly 400 miles from the Valley to Austin to demand fair wages and better working conditions.

From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2026

There are thousands of retirement-age turbines waiting to be harvested as America’s wind industry ages, reports Ed Ballard.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

The success of Cameron's idea reflects a wider boom in pumpkin patches, with many farmers now diversifying into "experiences" that draw crowds long after other crops are harvested.

From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026

Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting firm found to have improperly harvested personal data from millions of Facebook users for targeted political advertising, notably during the 2016 US presidential election.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 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

“That’s why it was critical for us to get into the game now,” said Diesselhorst, who says he believes Paladin is the first company to start harvesting this source of rare earths.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2026

Existing scorpion antivenoms are produced by injecting horses with venom and harvesting their plasma antibodies, making them expensive to produce, variable and effective only against specific species.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026

And, of course, there’s a brain-melting plan for SpaceX to launch data centers into orbit, harvesting free power from the sun.

From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2026

Diamond said there’s also a long tradition of locals harvesting food from the ocean.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026

It “didn’t do” to think about—strangers here, harvesting “our” land.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

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Related Words

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

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