See Also: WAY GOING CROP(law)
crop(dictionary)
crop(2)(dictionary)
crop(1)(dictionary)
crop top(dictionary)
crop(encyclopedia)
crop rotation(dictionary)
crop-dusting(dictionary)
crop-spraying(dictionary)
root crop(dictionary)

crop(2) (iou)



crop noun.
[Old English crop corresp. to Middle Low German, Middle Dutch kropp, Old High German, German Kropf, Old Norse kroppr; further relations uncertain.]
I.
a. A pouchlike enlargement of the gullet of many birds in which food is stored and prepared for digestion; an analogous organ in insects and some other animals. OE.
b. transf. & fig. The stomach; the throat. Now dial. ME.
The head of a flower, herb, etc., esp. as picked for use; an ear of corn. Now dial. OE.
The top of a tree; a topmost branch. Now dial. ME.
The upper part of a whip or (now Scot.) a fishing-rod; the whole stock of a whip; spec. (more fully riding-crop, hunting-crop) a short whipstock with a loop instead of or as well as a lash. LME.
Architecture. The foliate part of a finial. L15.
gen. The top of anything material. Scot. E16.
II.
[From sense 2.] The annual produce of cultivated plants, esp. the cereals, whether in the field or gathered. ME.
Joseph Hall The Husbandman looks not for a crop in the wild desart. J. H. B. Peel Is the crop really ready?
The yield of any natural product in a particular season or locality; a plant etc. which is periodically harvested. LME.
Pope Fields waving high with heavy crops. G. B. Shaw Their first crop of potatoes. W. Faulkner Cotton is a speculator's crop.
The entire tanned hide of an animal. LME.
A quantity produced or appearing, esp. at one time. L16.
G. B. Shaw The world's crop of infamy. M. McCarthy This new crop of girls was far less idealistic..than their mothers.
III. [from the verb.]
A joint of or of meat; a piece cut off anything. LME.
An earmark made by cutting off part of the ear, esp. of an animal. M17.
An outcrop of rock. E18.
A conspicuously short haircut. L18.
Phrases: Eton crop: see ETON 5. green crop: see GREEN adjective. lop and crop: see LOP noun2 1. main crop: see MAIN adjective. neck and crop: see NECK noun1. sour crop: see SOUR adjective. standing crop: see STANDING adjective.
Comb.: crop circle a circular area in a field of standing crops (esp. wheat or another cereal) in which the stalks have been flattened to the ground, usu. in concentric rings; crop-dusting the spraying of crops with powdered insecticide etc. from the air; crop-ear (an animal or person with) an ear that has been cropped; crop-eared adjective (a) having the ears cropped; (b) arch. having the hair cut short and close to the head so that the ears are conspicuous, in a style favoured by Puritan supporters of Parliament in the English Civil War (cf. PRICK-EARED 2); crop-full adjective having a full crop or stomach (lit. & fig.); crop husbandry: see HUSBANDRY noun 2; crop-mark a local variation in the colour or growth of a crop, esp. when seen from the air, caused by a varying depth of soil (used to detect the presence of buried archaeological features); crop-over the end of the sugar cane harvest on a W. Indian plantation; the accompanying celebration; crop-sick adjective (now dial.) having an upset stomach, esp. through overindulgence.