crop

noun

• 1a cultivated plant that is grown as food, especially a grain, fruit, or vegetable:the main crops were oats and barley
• an amount of produce harvested at one time:a heavy crop of fruit
• an abundance of something, especially a person’s hair:he had a thick crop of wiry hair
• the total number of young farm animals born in a particular year on one farm.
• a group or amount of related people or things appearing or occurring at one time:the current crop of politicians
• the entire tanned hide of an animal.

• 2a hairstyle in which the hair is cut very short.

• 3short for riding crop.

• 4a pouch in a bird’s gullet where food is stored or prepared for digestion.
• an organ resembling a bird’s crop in an insect or earthworm.

verb (crops, cropping, cropped)

• 1cut (something, especially a person’s hair) very short: (as adjective cropped)cropped blond hair
• (of an animal) bite off and eat the tops of (plants):the horse was gratefully cropping the grass
• cut the edges of (a photograph) in order to produce a better picture or to fit a given space.

• 2harvest (plants or their produce) from a particular area:hay would have been cropped several times through the summer
• sow or plant (land) with plants that will produce food or fodder, especially on a large commercial scale:the southern areas are cropped in cotton (as adjective cropped)intensively cropped areas