name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
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"...to haue set and for malis and service...the four markland of Kincrakin...with the croft of Polgreyich and the croft that Ewin M'Ewin was wount to haue..."
"Mr Croft was comfortable with his cushy sinecure."
An enclosed piece of land, usually small and arable and used for small-scale food production, and often with a dwelling next to it; in particular, such a piece of land rented to a farmer (a crofter), especially in Scotland, together with a right to use separate pastureland shared by other crofters.
Common synonyms include: arable land, barnyard, barton, block, cattle ranch, chicken farm.
Mr Croft was comfortable with his cushy sinecure.
Pronounced /kɹɔf/.
The noun is derived from Middle English croft, crofft, croffte, croofte, crofte (“croft”), from Old English croft (“enclosed field”); further etymology uncertain, but possibly from Proto-Germanic *kruftaz (“a hill; a curve”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to bend; arch, crook, curve”); see also crop. The English word is cognate with Middle Dutch kroft, krocht, crocht (“high and dry land; a field on the downs”), Middle Low German kroch (“enclosed piece of farmland or pasture”), Scots croft, craft (“croft”). The verb is derived from the noun.
From Middle English croft, crofte, croufte, crufte (“crypt; vault”), from Old English cruft, from Latin crupta, crypta (“crypt; vault”), from Ancient Greek κρυπτή (kruptḗ), feminine form of κρῠπτός (krŭptós, “concealed, hidden; secret”), from κρύπτω (krúptō, “to conceal, hide; to obscure”) (further etymology unknown) + -ος (-os). The English word is cognate with Middle Dutch croft, crocht, crochte, crogt, cruft, crufte (modern Dutch krocht (“underground cavity, cave; underground vault, crypt”)), Middle Low German krucht, kruft (“crypt”), Old High German cruft (Middle High German kruft (“cave; crypt”)). Doublet of grotto and crypt.
A variant of carafe.
* As an English surname, from the noun croft (“small piece of land”). * Also as an English surname, variant of Craft. * As a Danish, Swedish, German and Jewish surname, Americanized from Kraft. * The place in Leicestershire is from Old English cræft (“device”). Also compare Kroft.