— cropless , adj.
/krop/ , n. , v. , cropped or ( Archaic ) cropt; cropping .
n.
1. the cultivated produce of the ground, while growing or when gathered: the wheat crop.
2. the yield of such produce for a particular season.
3. the yield of some other product in a season: the crop of diamonds.
4. a supply produced.
5. a collection or group of persons or things appearing or occurring together: this year's crop of students.
6. the stock or handle of a whip.
7. Also called riding crop . a short riding whip consisting of a stock without a lash.
8. Also called craw . Zool.
a. a pouch in the esophagus of many birds, in which food is held for later digestion or for regurgitation to nestlings.
b. a chamber or pouch in the foregut of arthropods and annelids for holding and partly crushing food.
9. the act of cropping.
10. a mark produced by clipping the ears, as of cattle.
11. a close-cropped hair style.
12. a head of hair so cut.
13. an entire tanned hide of an animal.
14. Mining. an outcrop of a vein or seam.
v.t.
15. to cut off or remove the head or top of (a plant, grass, etc.).
16. to cut off the ends or a part of: to crop the ears of a dog.
17. to cut short.
18. to clip the ears, hair, etc., of.
19. Photog. to cut off or mask the unwanted parts of (a print or negative).
20. to cause to bear a crop or crops.
21. to graze off (the tops of plants, grass, etc.): The sheep cropped the lawn.
v.i.
22. to bear or yield a crop or crops.
23. to feed by cropping or grazing.
24. crop out ,
a. Geol. , Mining. to rise to the surface of the ground: Veins of quartz crop out in the canyon walls.
b. to become evident or visible; occur: A few cases of smallpox still crop out every now and then.
25. crop up , to appear, esp. suddenly or unexpectedly: A new problem cropped up.
[ bef. 900; ME, OE: sprout, ear of corn, paunch, crown of a tree; c. G Kropf; see CROUP 2 ]
Syn. 1. CROP, HARVEST, PRODUCE, YIELD refer to the return in food obtained from land at the end of a season of growth. CROP, the term common in agricultural and commercial use, denotes the amount produced at one cutting or for one particular season: the potato crop. HARVEST denotes either the time of reaping and gathering, or the gathering, or that which is gathered: the season of harvest; to work in a harvest; a ripe harvest. PRODUCE esp. denotes household vegetables: Produce from the fields and gardens was taken to market. YIELD emphasizes what is given by the land in return for expenditure of time and labor: There was a heavy yield of grain this year.