Crop sb. World English Historical Dictionary

Crop sb. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1893, rev. 2025. Crop sb. Forms: 1– crop; also 1–6 cropp, 3–7 croppe, 4–7 crope, (5 crowpe, croupe, in sense 1), 7–9 Sc. and dial. crap. [OE. crop(p = OLG. *crop(p, MDu. crop(p, MLG., LG. and Du. krop, OHG. chropf, MHG., Ger. kropf, ‘swelling in the neck, wen, craw of a bird,’ in ON. kroppr hump or bunch on the body, Sw. kropp the body, Da. krop swelling under the throat. These various applications indicate a primitive sense of ‘swollen protuberance or excrescence, bunch.’ The word has passed from German into Romanic as F. croupe, and It. groppo, F. groupe: see CROUP, GROUP. OE. had only sense 1, ‘craw of a bird,’ and 3, ‘rounded head or top of an herb’; the latter is found also in High German dialects (Grimm, Kropf 4 c); the further developments of ‘head or top’ generally, and of ‘produce of the field, etc.,’ appear to be exclusively English. The senses under IV are new formations from the verb, and might be treated as a distinct word.]

1   I.  A round protuberance or swelling, the craw.

2   1.  A pouch-like enlargement of the œsophagus or gullet in many birds, in which the food undergoes a partial preparation for digestion before passing on to the true stomach; the craw.

3 c. 1000.  Ælfric, Lev. i. 16. Wurp þone cropp & þa federa wiðæftan þæt weofod.

4 1398.  Trevisa, Barth De P. R., V. xliv. (1495), 161. The mete of fowles is kepte in the croppe as it were in a propre spence.

5 14[?].  Wyclif (MS. S.), Lev. i. 16. The litil bladdir of the throte or the cropp.

6 c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 101/1. Crawe, or crowpe of a byrde.

7 1486.  Bk. St. Albans, C vij b. Hawkys that haue payne in theyr croupes.

8 1555.  Eden, Decades, 16. He commaunded the croppe to bee opened of suche as were newely kylled.

9 1607.  Topsell, Serpents (1653), 740. They have a crap on the belly from the chin to the breast, like the crap of a Bird.

10 1780.  Cowper, Nightingale & Glowworm, 12. Stooping down … He thought to put him in his crop.

11 1870.  Rolleston, Anim. Life, Introd. p. lii. The oesophagus … often expands into a crop.

12   b.  An analogous organ in other animals.

13 1836.  Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 535/1. In the Nautilus it [the gullet] is dilated into a pyriform crop.

14 1881.  Darwin, Earthworms, i. 17. In most of the species, the œsophagus is enlarged into a crop in front of the gizzard.

15   † c.  The dewlap of an ox; a wen in the neck.

16 1591.  Horsey, Trav. (Hakluyt Soc.), 220. A goodly fare white bull … his crop or gorg hanging down to his knees before him.

17 1599.  A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 89/2. When anye man hath a croppe growinge on him … applye it on the Croppe, and it helpeth.

18   2.  transf. and fig. The stomach or maw; also the throat. Now Sc. and dial. Cf. GIZZARD.

19 c. 1325.  Pol. Songs (Camden), 238. The knave crommeth is crop Er the cok crawe.

20 a. 1400.  Cov. Myst., xxiii. (Shaks. Soc.), 217. I xal this daggare putt in his croppe.

21 a. 1575.  Wife lapped, 88, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 184. Which sore would sticke then in thy crop.

22 1737.  Ramsay, Sc. Prov. (1776), 31 (Jam.). He has a crap for a’ corn.

23 1808–25.  Jamieson, s.v., That’ll craw in your crap, that will be recollected to your discredit, it will be matter of reproach to you.

24 1876.  Mid-Yorksh. Gloss., Crop, applied to the throat, or locality of the windpipe. One who manifests hoarseness is alluded to as having a ‘reasty crop.’

25   II.  The (rounded) head; the top part.

26   † 3.  The ‘head’ of an herb, flower, etc., esp. as gathered for culinary or medicinal purposes; a cyme; an ear of corn, a young sprout, etc. Obs.

27 a. 700.  Epinal Gloss., 60. Acitelum, hramsa crop.

28 c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Luke vi. 1. Ðegnas his ða croppas eton.

29 c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 135. Tursus, cimia, crop. Ibid., 149. Cima, crop.

30 c. 1350.  in Archæol., XXX. 356. Take sanycle and ye crop of ye brembelys … Ye crop of ye reednettyle.

31 1536.  Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), I. p. xlii. Mure cokis and hennis, quhilk etis nocht bot seid, or croppis of hadder.

32 1601.  Holland, Pliny, II. 97. When the Nettle is young … they vse to eat the crops therof for a pleasant kind of meat.

33 1686.  W. Harris, trans. Lemery’s Chym. (ed. 3), 572. Take two pounds of Rosemary Flowers, the Leaves of Rosemary, the crops of Thyme, Savory, Lavender, [etc.].

34 1785.  Burns, Earnest Cry, xxxi. Whare ye sit, on craps o’ heather.

35   b.  Arch. A bunch of foliage terminating a pinnacle, etc.; a finial.

36 1478.  Botoner, Itin. (Nasmith, 1778), 282. A le gargayle usque le crope qui finit le stone-work.

37 1846.  Ecclesiologist, V. 214. The ‘crop’ is a bunch of foliage surmounting a crocketed canopy, and resulting from the concurrence of the two topmost crockets.

38 1848.  B. Webb, Continental Ecclesiol., 60. With crockets and a crop, above a two-light window.

39   † 4.  The ‘head’ or top of a tree. Sometimes (with pl.), A topmost branch. Obs.

40 a. 1300.  Signs bef. Judgem., in E. E. P. (1862), 10. Þe sef þe dai hit [the tree] sal grow aȝe har crop adun har rote an hei.

41 1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 81. In Inde a crop of a figge tree is so huge … þat meny companyes of men may sitte at þe mete wel i-now þere vnder.

42 1399.  Pol. Poems (Rolls), I. 365. Hewe hit downe crop and rote.

43 c. 1440.  Gesta Rom., lxv. 186 (Add. MS.). He sawe the Ape … in the croppe of a tree.

44 1549.  Compl. Scot., xiv. 121. Tha band his tua armis vitht cordis to the crops of ane of the treis.

45 1558.  Phaër, Æneid, VI. P iv b. So from the tree the golden braunche did shewe … Æneas … caught a crop with much ado.

46   5.  fig., esp. in phr. crop and root, implying the completeness or thoroughness of anything: cf. ‘root and branch.’ Now Sc.

47 a. 1310.  in Wright, Lyric P., xxxvi. 100. Fals y wes in crop ant rote.

48 c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, V. 25. She that was sothfaste crop and moore Of al his lust or ioyes here-to-fore.

49 1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. XXIII. 53. Antecrist cam þenne and al þe crop of treuthe Turned tyte vp-so-doun.

50 c. 1460.  Towneley Myst., 96. Haylle, David sede! Of oure crede thou art crop.

51 1513.  Douglas, Æneis, XII. x. 116. Baith crop, and ruyte, and heyd of sik myscheif.

52 a. 1670.  Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1792), I. 100 (Jam.). To … sweep off the bishops of both kingdoms, crop and root.

53 1768.  Ross, Helenore, 30 (Jam.). I tauld you crap and root, Fan I came here.

54   6.  gen. The top of anything material. Sc.

55 1513.  Douglas, Æneis, I. iii. 91. Our slidand lychtlie the croppis of the wallis [= waves].

56 1808–25.  Jamieson, s.v. Crap, The crap of the earth, the surface of the ground…. The crap of the wa’, the highest part of it in the inner side of a house. The cones of firs are called fir-craps.

57 1834.  H. Miller, Scenes & Leg., xviii. 270. A grip that would spin the bluid out ot the craps o’ a child’s fingers.

58 1868.  G. Macdonald, R. Falconer, I. 271. She proceeded … to search for them in the crap o’ the wa’, that is, on the top of the wall where the rafters rest.

59   7.  spec. a. ‘The top or uppermost section of a fishing-rod’ (Jamieson). Now Sc.

60 a. 1450.  Fysshynge wyth an Angle (1883), 8. Set your crop an honful withyn þe ovir ende of ȝowr stafe. Than arme ȝowr crop at þe ovir ende … with a lyn of vi herys.

61 1496.  Bk. St. Albans, H v. But kepe hym ever under the rodde … soo that your lyne may susteyne and beere his lepys and his plungys with the helpe of your cropp and of your honde.

62 1808–25.  Jamieson, s.v., The crap of a fishing-wand.

63   b.  The upper part of a whip; hence the whole stock or handle of a whip.

64 1562.  Bulleyn, Def. agst. Sickness, Sicke Men (1579), 8 b. A long whipstocke with croppe and laniarde.

65 1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), Crop … the Handle of a Coach-man’s Whip.

66 1781.  P. Beckford, Hunting (1802), 42, note. The whips I use are coach-whips, three feet long, the thong half the length of the crop.

67 1846.  Egerton-Warburton, Hunting Songs, ‘Tantivy Trot.’ Here’s to the music in three feet of tin, Here’s to the tapering crop, Sir.

68 1856.  Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., 33. He admonished the wheeler with the ‘crop’ of his whip.

69   c.  esp. A short straight whipstock with a handle and a short leather loop in place of the lash, used in the hunting field; more fully hunting-crop.

70 1857.  G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, iv. 28. Their hunting-crops and heavy cutting-whips used remorselessly.

71 1887.  Sir R. H. Roberts, In the Shires, i. 13. His crop had fallen out of his hands.

72   III.  The produce of the field, etc. (from 3).

73   8.  The annual produce of plants cultivated or preserved for food, esp. that of the cereals; the produce of the land, either while growing or when gathered; harvest.

74 [c. 1213.  in Madox, Form. Anglic., ccxxii. Donec inde duos croppos perceperint.]

75 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 3103 (Cott.). O corn, o crop, aght and catell [Trin. Of crop of corn & oþere catel] To godd his tend þar gafe he lele.

76 c. 1450.  St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 8280. Þare he gaue all stayndrope With purtenance, wode and croppe.

77 1546.  Supplic. of Poore Commons, 71. No man myght … gleane his grounde after he had gathered of his croppe.

78 1596.  Bp. W. Barlow, Three Serm., i. 28. Bewitch not by any Charme any other mans Crop.

79 a. 1656.  Bp. Hall, Rem. Wks. (1660), 121. The Husbandman looks not for a crop in the wild desart.

80 1818.  Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), II. 109. He was not even entitled to reap the crop, as other tenants at will were.

81   b.  In, under, out of crop: i.e., the condition of bearing crops; tillage, cultivation.

82 1791.  Statist. Acc. Dumfr., I. 181 (Jam. s.v. Croft-land). A few acres of what is called croft-land, which was never out of crop.

83 1806.  Gazetteer Scot. (ed. 2), 58. The surface is in general level, and about three-fourths are under crop.

84 1892.  Times, 14 Dec., 4/6. Including 75,833 acres in crop and grass.

85   9.  With qualification or contextual specification: The yield or produce of some particular cereal or other plant in a single season or in a particular locality. The crops: the whole of the plants that engage the agricultural industry of a particular district or season.

86   Black crop: a crop of beans or peas, as opposed to one of corn. Green crop: a crop cut in its green state for fodder; also, a crop that does not turn white in ripening, as roots, potatoes, etc. White crop: a crop that whitens in ripening; a corn or grain crop.

87 [1322.  Literæ Cantuar. (Rolls), I. 82. Cum cropa frumenti … cropa vescarum … et cropa avenarum.]

88 c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 104. Croppe of corne yn a yere (ȝere K.), annona.

89 1530.  Palsgr., 211/1. Croppe of corne, leuee de terre.

90 1611.  Coryat, Crudities, 124. They turned in their stubble to sow another croppe of wheate in the same place.

91 1789.  Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 8. No crops are yet got in.

92 1807.  Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 156. The common course of crops through this district may be stated—as, wheat, barley, oats, clover with hievre, first year mown.

93 1816.  Keatinge, Trav. (1817), II. 182. The ground … is only sown with a white crop one year, and the next with a green one to cut for fresh fodder, as lucerne, sanfoin, trefoil or clover.

94 1849.  Helps, Friends in C., II. 91. Many a long talk about the crops and the weather.

95 1852.  Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., II. xxxvi. 227. You ’ll lose your bet on the *cotton crop.

96   b.  The annual or season’s yield of any natural product.

97 a. 1825.  Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Crop, annual produce, as well animal as vegetable. We talk of crops of lambs, turkeys, geese, &c.

98 1879.  Lumberman’s Gaz., 15 Oct. Cutting their next season’s crop of logs.

99 1884.  Cassell’s Fam. Mag., Feb., 188/1. The total annual ice-crop of the States is twenty million tons.

100   10.  The entire skin or hide of an animal tanned. Also short for crop-hide, crop-leather: see 22. (Cf. englische kröpfe and kropfen in Grimm 2395, 2400.)

101 1457.  Bury Wills (Camden), 13. Togam meam penulatam cum croppes de grey [? badger skins].

102 1486.  Will of Marsh (Somerset Ho.). Togam … furratam cum croppys.

103 1856.  R. Gardiner, Handbk. Foot, 50. The soles should be of the best English crop or dintle.

104 1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Crop … in the leather trade, the commercial name for an entire hide.

105   11.  transf. and fig. That which grows out of or is produced by any action; the ‘fruit’; a supply produced or appearing.

106 c. 1575.  Fulke, Confut. Doct. Purg. (1577), 424. The latter end of this chapter hath one croppe of his olde custome.

107 1587.  Mirr. Mag., Malin, v. Insteade of rule hee reapes the crop of thrall.

108 1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. iv. 47. When … I … hop’d to reape the crop of all my care.

109 1680.  Otway, Hist. Caius Marius, Prol. From the Crop of his luxuriant Pen.

110 1799.  Med. Jrnl., II. 135. This morning there is a plentiful crop [of pustules] on every part of her body.

111 1830.  Cunningham, Brit. Paint., I. 322. The annual academical crop of beardless youths.

112 1862.  Goulburn, Pers. Relig., IV. x. (1873), 335. [This] has given rise to a crop of petty discussions.

113   12.  Tin-mining. The best quality of tin-ore obtained after dressing; more fully crop-ore, -tin.

114 1778.  W. Price, Min. Cornub., 218. The crop and leavings of Tin. The first is the prime Tin. Ibid., 319. The finest black Tin is called the Crop.

115 1884.  Erichsen, Surgery (1888), 348. Two pits are formed; in the one nearest the mill the purer and heavier part of the ore, or crop, is deposited.

116   IV.  [f. CROP v.] The act of cropping or its result.

117   13.  The cropping or cutting of the hair short; a style of wearing the hair cut conspicuously short; a closely cropped head of hair.

118 1795.  Wolcott (P. Pindar), Hair Powder, Wks. 1812, III. 289. His Curling-irons breaks and snaps his Combs … For dead is Custom ’mid the world of crops.

119 1844.  Dickens, Mart. Chuz., ii. She wore it [her hair] in a crop, a loosely flowing crop.

120 1853.  [see COUNTY1 8 b] County crop.

121 1856.  J. W. Cole, Mem. Brit. Gen. Penins. War, I. i. 38. Giving up the time-honoured powder and queue, and wearing a crop.

122 1878.  Punch, I. 21. Newgate crop.

123   14.  A mark made by cropping the ears of animals; an ear-mark.

124 1675.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1007/4. 39 fat sheep … cropped in both ears; but the farther ear is a hollow crop.

125 1887.  L. Swinburne, in Scribn. Mag., II. 508/2. Crop, … an ear-mark.

126   † 15.  A crop-eared animal; a person who wears his hair cropped. (In quot. 1811 = CROPPY2).

127 1689.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2422/4. And also a sorrel Crop.

128 a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Crop, one with very short Hair; also a Horse whose Ears are cut. Ibid., Prickear’d Fellow, a Crop, whose Ears are longer than his Hair.

129 1811.  E. Lysaght, Poems, 97. ‘That’s true’ says the Sheriff, ‘for plenty of crops Already I’ve seen on the pavement.’

130   16.  A piece cropped or cut off from the end.

131 1874.  J. A. Phillips, Elem. Metal. (1887), 367. The rails are sawn to the proper length, giving a short piece or crop from either end.

132 1890.  Nature, 2 Oct., 555. Steel rails occasionally fail at the ends owing to insufficient ‘crop’ being cut off the rolled rail.

133   b.  Applied to certain cuts of meat.

134 a. 1825.  Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Crop … a joint of pork, commonly called the spare-rib.

135 1868.  C. J. Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., Crop, a joint cut from the ribs of an Ox, and with the bones shortened.

136 1880.  Webster, Supp., Crop, the region above the shoulder in the ox.

137   17.  The noise made by an animal in cropping grass, etc. (Cf. CRUMP.)

138 1851.  Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., iv. 29. The ‘crop, crop’ of our horses shortening the crisp grass.

139   18.  Min. and Geol. † a. The cropping up or out of a stratum, vein, etc. Obs. b. An outcrop.

140 1679.  [see CROP v. 10].

141 1719.  Strachey, in Phil. Trans., XXX. 968. For Discovery of Coal, they first search for the Crop, which … sometimes appears to the Day, as they term it.

142 1789.  J. Williams, Nat. Hist. Min. Kingd. (1810), I. 116. I have traced the crops or outward extremities of these coals.

143 1879.  Dixon, Windsor, I. ii. 11. A crop of rock, starting from a crest of rock.

144   19.  (See quot.)

145 1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Crop … a fixed weight in different localities for sugar, tobacco, and other staples … the usual recognized weight of a crop-hogshead of tobacco is from 1000 to 1300 lbs. nett.

146   20.  Neck and crop: see NECK.

147   V.  attrib. and Comb.

148   † 21.  attrib. Having the ears, hair, etc., cropped.

149 1663.  Pepys, Diary, 1 May. Galloping upon a little crop black nag.

150 1785.  Sarah Fielding, Ophelia, II. i. I had rather have … my crop horse.

151 1825.  Lockhart, Lett., 24 Aug., in Life Scott. They have crop heads, shaggy, rough, bushy.

152   22.  Comb., as (sense 1) crop-like, -shaped adjs.; (senses 8–9) crop-farming, -land; crop-producing adj.: parasynthetic, as crop-headed, -haired, -nosed, -tailed; † crop-doublet, a short doublet; crop-hide, a hide, esp. a cow- or ox-hide, tanned whole and untrimmed; crop-leather (see quot.); crop-ore (see 12); † crop-side, the outcrop of a stratum on a slope; crop-sole, sole leather obtained from crop-hides; crop-tin (see 12); crop-wall (Sc.), the crop of the wall (cf. 6); † crop-weed, the knapweed, Centaurea nigra; crop-wood (dial.), the branches lopped off a felled tree. Also CROP-EAR, -EARED, -SICK.

153 1640.  Shirley, Const. Maid, I. i. (D.). Hospitality went out of fashion with *crop-doublets and cod-pieces.

154 1887.  Contemp. Rev., May, 701. Southern Minnesota has outlived the wheat growing and *crop-farming period.

155 1879.  F. W. Robinson, Coward Consc., II. xxi. He glanced … at a *crop-haired individual.

156 1842.  Browning, Cavalier Tunes, ii. Bidding the *crop-headed Parliament swing.

157 1794.  Hull Advertiser, 20 Sept., 4/1. Leather … *Crop Hides for Cutting.

158 1802.  Hull Packet, 28 Sept., 2/2. A good assortment of horse, calf, and crop hides.

159 1846.  M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 211. Thousands of acres of *crop-land are sometimes laid under water.

160 1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Crop-leather, Crops, leather made from thin cow hides, used chiefly for pumps and light walking-shoes.

161 1839.  Todd, Cycl., II. 970/2. The œsophagus … expanded into a large *crop-shaped bag.

162 1717.  E. Barlow, Surv. Tide (1722), 11. The Water … descending from the *Crop-side is lodg’d therein.

163 1824.  Mechanic’s Mag., No. 43. 238. The best method of finishing or striking *cropsole leather.

164 1881.  Chicago Times, 11 June. The largest advance in leather has been in crop sole.

165 1689.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2427/4. One black brinded Bull-Bitch, crop Ear’d, *crop Tailed, black Mouth ’d.

166 1884.  Times, 26 Aug., 8/2. The … crop-tailed little Kerry nag.

167 1892.  Blackw. Mag., Oct., 481/1. The timbers were coom-ceiled—that is, went down open to the *crap-wa’ or angle at the eaves.

168 1597.  Gerarde, Herbal, App. to Table, *Crop weed is Iacea nigra.

169 1884.  Holland, Cheshire Gloss., Crop, or *Crop-wood, the branches of a felled tree.

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