Harvest

//ˈhɑɹ.vəst// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The process of gathering the ripened crop; harvesting. countable, uncountable

    "The constant rain made the harvest a nightmare this year."

  2. 2
    the season for gathering crops wordnet
  3. 3
    The yield of harvesting, i.e., the gathered crops or fruits. countable, uncountable

    "This year's cotton harvest was great but the corn harvest was disastrous."

  4. 4
    the gathering of a ripened crop wordnet
  5. 5
    The product or result of any exertion or course of action; reward or consequences. broadly, countable, uncountable

    "The surveillance mission yielded a healthy harvest of intel."

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  1. 6
    the consequence of an effort or activity wordnet
  2. 7
    The season of gathering ripened crops; specifically, the time of reaping and gathering grain. countable, uncountable
  3. 8
    the yield from plants in a single growing season wordnet
  4. 9
    The third season of the year; autumn; fall. UK, countable, dialectal, uncountable

    "Harvest is usually very damp and rainy."

  5. 10
    A modern pagan ceremony held on or around the autumn equinox, which is in the harvesting season. countable, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To bring in a harvest; reap; glean. transitive

    "We harvested the apples in September already."

  2. 2
    remove from a culture or a living or dead body, as for the purposes of transplantation wordnet
  3. 3
    To take a living organism as part of a managed process to gather food or resources, often with the intention of maintaining a healthy population. transitive

    "An efficient rifle or shotgun can harvest a deer for venison."

  4. 4
    gather, as of natural products wordnet
  5. 5
    To be occupied bringing in a harvest. intransitive

    "We're going to harvest day and night, because the weather is about to turn sour."

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  1. 6
    To win, achieve a gain. transitive

    "The rising star harvested well-deserved acclaim, even an Oscar under 21."

Synonyms

All synonyms
cropreapautumnconsequencecropeffect

Example

More examples

"Some day you will have to reap the harvest of your own sowing."

Etymology

From Middle English harvest, hervest, from Old English hærfest (“autumn, harvest-time; August”), from Proto-West Germanic *harbist, from Proto-Germanic *harbistaz (“harvest-time, autumn, fall”), from *harbaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kerp-. Cognates Cognate with Sylt North Frisian Hārefst, West Frisian hjerst, Dutch herfst, German Herbst, dated German Low German Harvst, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål høst, Norwegian Nynorsk haust; further with Latin carpere (“to seize”), Ancient Greek καρπός (karpós, “fruit”), κείρω (keírō, “to cut off”).

Related phrases

Baker's small-toothed harvest mousego-harvestharvest breakharvest bugharvest dollharvest festivalharvest fishharvest flyharvest goldharvest gooseharvest homeharvest homecoming

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.