What does "crop" mean?
Crop: The top, end, or highest part of anything, especially of a plant or tree. [Obs.] "Crop and root." Chaucer.
Additional senses
- 2.That which is cropped, cut, or gathered from a single felld, or of a single kind of grain or fruit, or in a single season; especially, the product of what is planted in the earth; fruit; harvest. Lab'ring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop, Corn, wine, and oil. Milton.
- 3.Grain or other product of the field while standing.
- 4.Anything cut off or gathered. Guiltless of steel, and from the razor free, It falls a plenteous crop reserved for thee. Dryden.
- 5.Hair cut close or short, or the act or style of so cutting; as, a convict's crop.
- 6.(Arch.) A projecting ornament in carved stone. Specifically, a finial. [Obs.]
- 7.(Mining.) (a) Tin ore prepared for smelting. (b) Outcrop of a vein or seam at the surface. Knight.
- 8.A riding whip with a loop instead of a lash. Neck and crop, altogether; roughly and at once. [Colloq.]
- 9.To cut off the tops or tips of; to bite or pull off; to browse; to pluck; to mow; to reap. I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one. Ezek. xvii.
- 10.2. Fig.: To cut off, as if in harvest. Death . . . .crops the growing boys. Creech.
- 11.To cause to bear a crop; as, to crop a field.
- 12.To yield harvest. To crop out. (a) (Geol.) To appear above the surface, as a seam or vein, or inclined bed, as of coal. (b) To come to light; to be manifest; to appear; as, the peculiarities of an author crop out. -- To crop up, to sprout; to spring up. "Cares crop up in villas." Beaconsfield.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00