Crop

Crop (krŏp), n. [OE. crop, croppe, craw, top of a plant, harvest, AS. crop, cropp, craw, top, bunch, ear of corn; akin to D. krop craw, G. kropf, Icel. kroppr hump or bunch on the body, body; but cf. also W. cropa, croppa, crop or craw of a bird, Ir. & Gael. sgroban. Cf. Croup, Crupper, Croup.] 1. The pouchlike enlargement of the gullet of birds, serving as a receptacle for food; the craw.

2. The top, end, or highest part of anything, especially of a plant or tree. [Obs.] "Crop and root." Chaucer.

3. That which is cropped, cut, or gathered from a single felld, or of a single kind of grain or fruit, or in a single season; especially, the product of what is planted in the earth; fruit; harvest.

Lab'ring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop,
Corn, wine, and oil.
Milton.

4. Grain or other product of the field while standing.

5. Anything cut off or gathered.

Guiltless of steel, and from the razor free,
It falls a plenteous crop reserved for thee.
Dryden.

6. Hair cut close or short, or the act or style of so cutting; as, a convict's crop.

7. (Arch.) A projecting ornament in carved stone. Specifically, a finial. [Obs.]

8. (Mining.) (a) Tin ore prepared for smelting. (b) Outcrop of a vein or seam at the surface. Knight.

9. A riding whip with a loop instead of a lash.

Neck and crop, altogether; roughly and at once. [Colloq.]

Crop, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cropped (kr?pt); p. pr. & vb. n. Cropping.] 1. To cut off the tops or tips of; to bite or pull off; to browse; to pluck; to mow; to reap.

I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one.
Ezek. xvii. 22.

2. Fig.: To cut off, as if in harvest.

Death . . . .crops the growing boys.
Creech.

3. To cause to bear a crop; as, to crop a field.

Crop, v. i. To yield harvest.

To crop out. (a) (Geol.) To appear above the surface, as a seam or vein, or inclined bed, as of coal. (b) To come to light; to be manifest; to appear; as, the peculiarities of an author crop out. -- To crop up, to sprout; to spring up. "Cares crop up in villas." Beaconsfield.