# harvest

Pronunciation: say "HAR-vist" US /ˈhɑɹ.vəst/, UK /ˈhɑː(ɹ)vɪst/

## Verb

1. To gather in a ripe crop from the fields, or to be engaged in this work.
   - Simple: To pick or cut and collect crops when they are ready.
   - _They harvest the grapes by hand on the steeper slopes._
   - _Workers harvested the rice paddies row by row through the morning._
4. To take wild animals, fish, or plants for food or other resources, often within limits set to manage the population.
   - Simple: To catch or take wild animals, fish, or plants for food or other uses, often within set limits.
   - _The agency allows hunters to harvest a set number of elk annually._
   - _Crews harvested timber selectively to protect the surrounding forest._
7. To win or achieve a gain.
   - Simple: To win something or gain a good result.
   - _With a strong local campaign, the young candidate hoped to harvest votes in towns her party had long ignored._
   - _The campaign harvested millions in donations within a single week._
8. To take or draw out something, for instance organs, cells, data or energy, so that it can be put to use in another place.
   - Simple: To take something like organs, data or energy from one place to use it somewhere else.
   - _Panels on the roof harvest enough solar energy to run the whole building._
   - _Researchers harvested stem cells from the volunteers' bone marrow._

## Noun

2. The process of gathering the ripened crop from the field.
   - Simple: The work of gathering crops when they are ripe.
   - _The harvest required every available worker on the estate._
   - _Mechanization has made the harvest far faster than manual reaping ever was._
3. The gathered crops or fruits brought in from the fields.
   - Simple: The crops that farmers gather in from the fields.
   - _The grain harvest exceeded last season's total by a wide margin._
   - _Farmers stored the harvest in silos before the first frost arrived._
5. The period each year when ripe crops are brought in, especially the weeks when grain is cut and gathered.
   - Simple: The time of year when farmers reap and gather grain.
   - _At harvest, the village hired extra hands to bring in the grain._
   - _The festival marks the end of harvest each year._
6. The product or result of effort or actions: the reward or consequences they bring.
   - Simple: The good or bad result that comes from what you have done.
   - _The scandal was the bitter harvest of years of dishonesty._
   - _She reaped a harvest of praise for her tireless work._
9. Autumn or fall, counted as the year's third season. *(dialectal, UK)*
   - Simple: The third season of the year, between summer and winter: the fall.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A modern pagan ceremony held on or around the fall equinox, within the crop-gathering season.

## Origin

From Middle English 'harvest', from Old English 'hærfest' ("autumn, harvest-time"), going back through Proto-Germanic *harbistaz to the Proto-Indo-European root *kerp-. It is related to German 'Herbst' and Dutch 'herfst', as well as Latin 'carpere' ("to seize") and Ancient Greek 'karpós' ("fruit").

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