harvesting

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The work of gathering a mature crop from the fields once it is ready to be collected.

   The harvesting of the grapes happens at dawn to keep the fruit cool.

   Mechanized harvesting has cut the time needed to bring in the grain.

   Similarreaping, picking, gathering

   Oppositesowing, planting

   Note

   A farming term for the work itself: cutting, picking or uprooting plants once they reach maturity, before yield and quality begin to decline. It is usually uncountable, as in mechanized harvesting or the harvesting of the grapes. It can also be counted when separate gatherings are meant, as in two harvestings a year. Harvest can name the gathered crop; harvesting names only the labor of bringing it in.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of harvest.

   They spent the morning harvesting wheat in the lower field.

   Harvesting honey requires protective gear and a calm hand.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. After be it forms the progressive (they were harvesting), and in noun positions it is the gerund. The verb can take an object directly, as in harvesting wheat or harvesting fish stocks, or none at all, as in busy harvesting. That direct object separates the gerund from the noun for the crop work: harvesting honey is verbal, while the harvesting of honey, with of, is the noun.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The gathering of any kind of resource for later use.

   The harvesting of data from millions of users raised serious privacy concerns.

   Wind farms make the harvesting of renewable energy possible at scale.

   Similarcollection, gathering, extraction, capture

   Note

   The farm word stretched to anything that can be gathered in. The resource usually comes first as a modifier: organ harvesting, data harvesting, energy harvesting. Sandeep Jauhar's Heart: a History (2018) uses it of organs taken from brain-dead patients. Even in a clinical setting, the word keeps a trace of the crop sense: what is harvested is treated as a yield to be brought in.

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