crop

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable

   A plant grown in large amounts by farmers, especially for food or to make money.

   Grammar: Countable; can be used in the plural for different kinds of plants, e.g. 'wheat and rice are important crops.'

   Patterns

   • grow a crop
   • harvest a crop
   • a crop of something
   • cash crop

   The main crop in this region is rice.

   Farmers are worried that the corn crop will fail because of the drought.

   They rotate their crops to keep the soil healthy.

2. 2nouncountable

   A group of people or things that appear at the same time or are similar in some way.

   Grammar: Countable; often used in phrases like 'a new crop of' to talk about a fresh group.

   Patterns

   • a crop of something
   • the latest crop of

   This year's crop of students is particularly talented.

   The company has hired a new crop of young engineers.

3. 3verbtransitive

   To cut off the edges or part of a photograph, image, or piece of writing.

   Grammar: Takes an object: crop a photo. Often used with 'out' to remove something completely.

   Patterns

   • crop something
   • crop something out of something
   • crop something to something

   I cropped the picture to remove the background.

   She cropped her ex-boyfriend out of the wedding photo.

   You can crop the image to make it square.

4. 4verbtransitive

   To cut something, especially hair or plants, very short.

   Grammar: Takes an object: crop hair. Often used in the passive or with 'short'.

   Patterns

   • crop something short
   • have something cropped

   He had his hair cropped very short for the summer.

   The gardener cropped the bushes into neat shapes.

Word forms

Common combinations

cash crop

Coffee is a major cash crop for farmers in this region.

crop yield

Better seeds led to a higher crop yield this year.

crop rotation

Crop rotation helps prevent soil exhaustion.

crop a photo

I cropped the photo to focus on the faces.

crop up

Problems often crop up when you least expect them.

Synonyms and how they differ

harvest

Harvest refers to the act of gathering crops or the amount gathered, while crop refers to the plants themselves before or after gathering.

produce

Produce is a general word for fresh fruits and vegetables, especially in a store; crop is used for plants grown on a farm.

Word family

cropper noun

A person or machine that cuts crops; also in the phrase 'come a cropper' meaning to fail badly.

Commonly confused: crop or crap?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “crop”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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