What does "crop" mean?
A plant, grown for it, or its fruits or seeds, to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, or fuel or for any other economic purpose.
Crop
/kɹɒp/ noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A plant, grown for it, or its fruits or seeds, to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, or fuel or for any other economic purpose.
- Grammar: crop is listed as noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: harvest, abbreviate, abdomen, abomasum.
- Useful contrasts: bare land, chaffweed, crazyweed.
- Usage evidence: Because of the difference in climate, the same crop is not cultivated in both the northern and the eastern parts of the country.
How to use "crop"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "crop" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "crop" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "crop" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "crop" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "crop" is acting as noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "harvest" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "crop", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A plant, grown for it, or its fruits or seeds, to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, or fuel or for any other economic purpose.
"The farmer had to decide which crop to grow as his main bet for the coming year. Would it be barley, oats, or something else?"
- 2 a pouch in many birds and some lower animals that resembles a stomach for storage and preliminary maceration of food wordnet
- 3 The production amount of such an output for a specific season or year, particularly of plants.
"It was a good crop of oats this year. What a nice change after last year's crop!"
- 4 the stock or handle of a whip wordnet
- 5 A group, cluster, or collection of things occurring at the same time. figuratively
"The decade produced a whole crop of ideas about space travel."
Show 18 more definitions
- 6 the output of something in a season wordnet
- 7 A group of vesicles at the same stage of development in a disease.
"The patient had a crop of bumps indicative of chicken pox."
- 8 a collection of people or things appearing together wordnet
- 9 The lashing end of a whip.
- 10 a cultivated plant that is grown commercially on a large scale wordnet
- 11 An entire short whip, especially as used in horse-riding.
- 12 the yield from plants in a single growing season wordnet
- 13 A rocky outcrop.
- 14 The act of cropping.
- 15 A photograph or other image that has been reduced by removing the outer parts.
"This indicates to the engraver that the subject may be cropped to yield the size desired, but it is advisable that the position for the crop also be determined and marked, else some essential feature of the copy may be cut off by arbitrary cropping to get the required size."
- 16 A short haircut.
"She went from a ponytail to a crop."
- 17 A pouch-like part of the alimentary tract of some birds (and some other animals), used to store food before digestion or for regurgitation.
"A little bird sat on the edge of her nest; Her yellow-beaks slept as sound as tops; That day she had done her very best, And had filled every one of their little crops."
- 18 The foliate part of a finial.
- 19 The head of a flower, especially when picked; an ear of corn; the top branches of a tree. archaic, dialectal
- 20 Tin ore prepared for smelting.
- 21 An outcrop of a vein or seam at the surface.
- 22 An entire oxhide.
- 23 Marijuana. in-plural, slang
"Cops, come and try to snatch my crops / These pigs wanna blow my house down"
Verb
- 1 To remove the top end of something, especially a plant. transitive
"I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one."
- 2 cultivate, tend, and cut back the growth of wordnet
- 3 To mow, reap or gather. transitive
- 4 cut short wordnet
- 5 To cut (especially hair or an animal's tail or ears) short. transitive
"And the knave who refuses to drink till he fall, / Why the hangman shall crop him — ears, love-locks, and all."
Show 8 more definitions
- 6 feed as in a meadow or pasture wordnet
- 7 To remove the outer parts of a photograph or other image, typically in order to frame the subject better. transitive
"Reduce to six inches wide and crop to eight inches high."
- 8 let feed in a field or pasture or meadow wordnet
- 9 To yield harvest. intransitive
- 10 yield crops wordnet
- 11 To cause to bear a crop. transitive
"to crop a field"
- 12 prepare for crops wordnet
- 13 To beat with a crop, or riding-whip. transitive
"She cropped the horse into a comfortable canter and enjoyed the familiar rhythm and bounce of the horse's stride."
Example
"Because of the difference in climate, the same crop is not cultivated in both the northern and the eastern parts of the country."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "crop"?
Common synonyms include: harvest, abbreviate, abdomen, abomasum, abridge, abscind.
How do you use "crop" in a sentence?
Because of the difference in climate, the same crop is not cultivated in both the northern and the eastern parts of the country.
How do you pronounce "crop"?
Pronounced /kɹɒp/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English crop, croppe, from Old English crop, cropp, croppa (“the head or top of a plant, a sprout or herb, a bunch or cluster of flowers, an ear of corn, the craw of a bird, a kidney”), from Proto-West Germanic *kropp, from Proto-Germanic *kruppaz (“body, trunk, crop”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to warp, bend, crawl”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch krop (“crop”), German Low German Kropp (“a swelling on the neck, the craw, maw”), German Kropf (“the craw, ear of grain, head of lettuce or cabbage”), Swedish kropp (“body, trunk”), Icelandic kroppur (“a hunch on the body”). Related to crap, doublet of group and croup.
Etymology 2
From Middle English croppen (“to cut, pluck and eat”), from Old English *croppian. Cognate with Scots crap (“to crop”), Dutch kroppen (“to cram, digest”), Low German kröppen (“to cut, crop, stuff the craw”), German kröpfen (“to crop”), Icelandic kroppa (“to cut, crop, pick”). Literally, to take off the crop (top, head, ear) of a plant. See Etymology 1.