# crop

Pronunciation: say "KROP" US /kɹɑp/, UK /kɹɒp/

## Noun

1. A plant grown to be harvested for food, livestock feed, fuel, or another economic purpose.
   - Simple: A plant that farmers grow to sell or to use for food, animal feed, or fuel.
   - _Cotton remains the most profitable crop on the family's land._
   - _Farmers rotate their crops to keep the soil healthy._
2. The amount of produce harvested in a particular season or year, especially from plants.
   - Simple: The total amount of food or plants that farmers gather in one season or year.
   - _The coffee crop fell sharply after an unusually dry summer._
   - _Vineyards across the valley reported an excellent grape crop this year._
6. A batch of similar people or things that arrive or emerge at about the same time.
   - Simple: A group of people or things that appear at the same time.
   - _The latest crop of smartphones offers little real innovation._
   - _A new crop of young writers is reshaping the magazine._
7. A hairstyle in which the hair is cut very short, close to the head.
   - Simple: A hairstyle cut very short and close to the head.
   - _A neat crop suited the sharp lines of her face._
   - _He asked the barber for a tight crop._
8. A photograph or image that has been trimmed by removing its outer parts.
   - Simple: A photo or image that has had its outer edges cut off.
   - _This crop removes the distracting buildings in the background._
   - _The editor preferred a square crop for the cover._
10. A short, rigid whip, especially one used in horse-riding.
   - Simple: A short, stiff whip used by horse riders.
   - _She raised her crop but never actually struck the horse._
   - _A well-balanced crop helps a jockey signal without losing grip._
12. A pouch-like part of the digestive tract of some birds and other animals, used to store food before digestion.
   - Simple: A pouch in the throat of some birds where food is stored before it is digested.
   - _The hen's crop was swollen with the grain she had eaten._
   - _Pigeons produce a milky secretion in the crop to feed their chicks._
13. The lashing end of a whip, the part that delivers the blow.
   - Simple: The end part of a whip that strikes or hits.
   - _The crop whistled past the horse's flank without touching it._
   - _Years of use had stiffened the leather crop on his coachman's whip._
15. Cannabis, grown and used as a recreational or medicinal drug. *(slang)*
   - Simple: The cannabis plant grown and used as a drug.
   - _He passed the crop around as the music played late into the night._
   - _Police seized several ounces of crop during the raid on the house._
16. The exposed surface portion of a mineral vein or seam where it reaches the ground.
   - Simple: The part of an underground rock layer or mineral vein that shows at the surface.
   - _Surveyors mapped the crop where the vein broke through the surface._
   - _The ore crop ran in a clear line along the exposed cliff face._
17. A mass of rock that projects above the surrounding surface.
   - Simple: A mass of rock that sticks out from the ground around it.
   - _Hikers rested on the granite crop overlooking the valley below._
   - _A weathered crop jutted from the hillside just above the trail._
18. The action of cutting or trimming something short.
   - Simple: The act of cutting or trimming something short.
   - _The editor's crop of the photograph focused attention on the subject._
   - _A tight crop of the footage trimmed away the empty opening seconds._
19. A group of small blisters at the same stage of development over the course of a disease.
   - Simple: A group of small blisters that all form at the same time during an illness.
   - _Chickenpox produces successive crops of vesicles over several days._
   - _The latest crop emerged along the patient's torso this morning._
22. An entire oxhide, taken and worked as a single piece.
   - Simple: The full hide of an ox, kept as one whole piece.
   - _The leatherworker selected a thick crop for the heavy harness._
   - _Several crops lay stacked and salted in the curing shed._
23. Tin ore that has been dressed and prepared for smelting.
   - Simple: Tin ore that has been made ready for melting down.
   - _The dressed crop was carried up to the smelting house._
   - _Each crop of tin was assayed before it entered the furnace._
24. The carved, leaf-like portion of a finial, the ornament crowning a spire or gable.
   - Simple: The leaf-shaped part of the carved ornament on top of a spire.
   - _The mason restored the worn crop atop the cathedral's tallest finial._
   - _Each crop was carved with delicate, curling oak leaves._

## Verb

3. To remove the outer parts of a photograph or image, usually to frame the subject better.
   - Simple: To cut off the outer edges of a photo so the main part looks better.
   - _Crop the image so the horizon sits a third of the way up._
   - _He cropped the screenshot to show only the relevant text._
4. To cut something short, especially hair or an animal's tail or ears.
   - Simple: To cut hair, or an animal's tail or ears, very short.
   - _Soldiers often crop their hair short for convenience._
   - _The groom cropped the pony's mane before the show._
5. To remove the upper end of something, particularly a plant.
   - Simple: To cut off the top part of something, especially a plant.
   - _Gardeners crop the leading shoots to encourage side growth._
   - _She cropped the tops of the basil plants to delay flowering._
9. To mow, reap, or gather a harvest from the land.
   - Simple: To cut down and gather a crop from a field.
   - _Villagers crop the barley by hand in the highland fields._
   - _They cropped the meadow grass for winter feed._
11. Of a plant or piece of land, to produce a harvest.
   - Simple: Of plants or land, to produce a harvest.
   - _The vines cropped abundantly after the wet spring._
   - _Some varieties crop earlier than others._
14. To make a piece of land produce a harvest of plants.
   - Simple: To plant and grow plants on a piece of land so it produces a harvest.
   - _Tenant farmers crop the hillside terraces with maize and beans._
   - _They have cropped that valley with the same grain for decades._
21. To strike a person or animal with a riding whip.
   - Simple: To hit a person or animal with a riding whip.
   - _She cropped the stubborn pony lightly across the flank._
   - _Cruel drivers crop their horses to force them onward._

## Noun

20. Any of several plant tops: a flower head, especially a picked one, an ear of corn, or a tree's highest branches. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: The top part of a plant: a flower head, an ear of grain, or the highest branches of a tree.
   - _The girl filled her basket with a crop of fresh daisies._
   - _Birds nested in the leafy crop of the towering elm._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2, 6–8, 10, 12–13, 15–20, 22–24** — From Middle English crop, from Old English crop, cropp meaning the head or top of a plant, a sprout, a cluster of flowers, or the craw of a bird. It comes from Proto-West Germanic *kropp and Proto-Germanic *kruppaz ('body, trunk, crop'), from a Proto-Indo-European root *grewb- ('to warp, bend, crawl'). It is related to Dutch krop and German Kropf, and is a doublet of 'group' and 'croup'.
**Meanings 3–5, 9, 11, 14, 21** — From Middle English croppen ('to cut, pluck and eat'), from Old English *croppian. It literally means to take off the crop (the top, head, or ear) of a plant, and is related to Dutch kroppen and Icelandic kroppa ('to cut, crop, pick'). See Etymology 1.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/crop (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).