crop

noun

• 1a cultivated plant that is grown on a large scale commercially, especially a cereal, 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: failure to observe sound practice leads to a lamb crop at weaning of around 50-60 per cent

• 2a group or amount of related people or things appearing or occurring at one time:the current crop of politicians

• 3a hairstyle in which the hair is cut very short: she has her hair cut in a short crop

• 4short for riding crop or hunting crop.

• 5a pouch in a bird’s gullet where food is stored or prepared for digestion: the parent waxbill partially digests food in its crop
• an organ resembling a pouch in an insect or earthworm.

• 6the entire tanned hide of an animal.

verb (crops, cropping, cropped)

• 1 [with object] cut (something, especially a person’s hair) very short: (as adjective cropped)cropped blonde 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: you can always crop the picture afterwards

• 2 [with object] harvest (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, with submodifier cropped)intensively cropped areas
• [no object] (of land or a plant) yield a harvest of plants or produce:the parsley will need protection to continue cropping through the winter