crop

SayKROP/kɹɑp/UK/kɹɒp/

24 meanings of crop

1
nouncountable
A plant that farmers grow to sell or to use for food, animal feed, or fuel.
Like the vegetables a gardener grows on purpose to eat or sell.
Wheat is an important crop in many countries.
Farmers plant a new crop every spring.
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2
nouncountable
The total amount of food or plants that farmers gather in one season or year.
Like counting how many apples a tree gives you in one year.
This year's corn crop was the largest in a decade.
Heavy rain ruined the wheat crop.
Similarharvest, yield
3
verbtransitive
To cut off the outer edges of a photo so the main part looks better.
Like trimming the white border off a photo with scissors.
I need to crop this photo before posting it.
She cropped the picture to hide the messy background.
Similartrim, cut
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4
verbtransitive
To cut hair, or an animal's tail or ears, very short.
Like giving a hedge a very short trim.
The barber cropped his hair close to the scalp.
They crop the dog's ears when it is young.
Similartrim, clip, cut, shear, dock
5
verbtransitive
To cut off the top part of something, especially a plant.
Like pinching the top off a plant so it grows wider.
You should crop the seedlings to help them grow bushier.
He cropped the tall stems before they flowered.
Similartop, trim, prune, lop
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6
nounfigurativelycountable
A group of people or things that appear at the same time.
Like a bunch of flowers that all bloom together at once.
This year's crop of new students is especially talented.
A fresh crop of movies arrives every summer.
Similarbatch, group, wave, generation, set
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7
nouncountable
A hairstyle cut very short and close to the head.
Like grass cut short and close to the ground.
She decided to get a crop for the summer.
His new crop made him look much younger.
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8
nouncountable
A photo or image that has had its outer edges cut off.
Like a smaller piece cut from the middle of a bigger picture.
The crop focuses tightly on her face.
I sent him a crop of the original photo.
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9
verbtransitive
To cut down and gather a crop from a field.
Like cutting and collecting all the ripe plants from a field.
The workers cropped the wheat before the rains came.
They crop the hay twice each summer.
Similarreap, harvest, mow, gather
10
nouncountable
A short, stiff whip used by horse riders.
Like a small stick a rider uses to guide a horse.
The rider tapped the horse gently with her crop.
He carried a leather crop under his arm.
Similarwhip
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11
verbintransitive
Of plants or land, to produce a harvest.
Like a tree giving lots of fruit in a good year.
The apple trees cropped well this year.
These bushes crop heavily in late summer.
Similaryield, produce, bear, fruit
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12
nouncountable
A pouch in the throat of some birds where food is stored before it is digested.
Like a small bag inside a bird where food waits before being digested.
A pigeon stores seeds in its crop before digesting them.
The bird's crop was full of grain.
Similarcraw
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13
nouncountable
The end part of a whip that strikes or hits.
Like the very tip of a jump rope, which moves fastest and stings the most.
The crop snapped through the air with a sharp crack.
She trimmed the frayed crop at the end of the old whip.
Similarlash, thong
14
verbtransitive
To plant and grow plants on a piece of land so it produces a harvest.
Farmers crop these fields with wheat every spring.
They cropped the lower paddock with barley last year.
Similarcultivate, farm, plant, till
15
nounslanguncountableplural
The cannabis plant grown and used as a drug.
He rolled some of the crop and passed it around the room.
They lit up a bit of crop behind the garage after dark.
Similarweed, pot, grass, cannabis, marijuana
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16
nouncountable
The part of an underground rock layer or mineral vein that shows at the surface.
Miners followed the crop along the hillside to find the buried seam.
The coal crop showed plainly right at the surface here.
Similaroutcrop, outcropping
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17
nouncountable
A mass of rock that sticks out from the ground around it.
We climbed up to the rocky crop for a better view of the lake.
A lone crop of stone rose above the flat grassland.
Similaroutcrop, crag, ledge
18
nouncountable
The act of cutting or trimming something short.
A careful crop of the image improved the whole composition.
A close crop of the lawn left it neat and even.
Similartrim, cut
19
nouncountable
A group of small blisters that all form at the same time during an illness.
Like a batch of bread rolls that all rise together in the oven.
A fresh crop of blisters appeared on the child's back overnight.
Each crop of spots healed before the next one came up.
Similarcluster, outbreak
20
nounarchaic
The top part of a plant: a flower head, an ear of grain, or the highest branches of a tree.
She gathered a crop of bright poppies from the meadow.
The wind bent the crop at the very top of the old oak.
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21
verbtransitive
To hit a person or animal with a riding whip.
The rider cropped the horse to make it go faster.
He would crop the stubborn mule whenever it stopped on the trail.
Similarwhip, lash, flog
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22
nouncountable
The full hide of an ox, kept as one whole piece.
The tanner bought a whole crop to make saddles and harnesses.
Each crop was soaked in the pit before tanning began.
Similarhide
23
nouncountable
Tin ore that has been made ready for melting down.
Miners weighed the crop before it went to the smelter.
The crop was clean enough to melt without any more washing.
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24
nouncountable
The leaf-shaped part of the carved ornament on top of a spire.
The stone crop on the church spire had broken off in the storm.
Carvers shaped the crop to look like curling leaves.
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Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–2, 6–8, 10, 12–13, 15–20, 22–24

From an Old English word 'crop' meaning the head or top of a plant, or a bird's craw. It goes back through Proto-Germanic to an ancient root meaning to bend or warp.

Meanings 3–5, 9, 11, 14, 21

From Middle English 'croppen', meaning to cut, pluck, and eat. Literally, to take off the crop or top of a plant.