Forms: 3–6 croppe, (6 cropp), 6–9 dial. crap, 7 crope, 4– crop. [f. CROP sb.]
1. trans. To cut off or remove the ‘crop’ or head of (a plant, tree, etc.); to poll, to lop off the branches of (a tree).
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 86. Ase þe wiði þet sprutteð ut þe betere þet me hine ofte croppeð.
1399. Pol. Poems (Rolls), I. 363. Crop hit welle, and hold hit lowe, or elles hit wolle be wilde.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., V. 92. So cropped for to sprynge he wol not ceese.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 132. Yf a tree be heded and vsed to be lopped and cropped at euery .xii. or .xvi. yeres ende.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 85/2. A Tree is … cropped, when all its Boughs are cut off.
1881. Oxfordshire Gloss. Supp., Crap, to crop or trim hedges.
1884. Cheshire Gloss., Crop, to cut the branches from a felled tree.
2. To pluck off, remove or detach (any terminal parts of a plant); to snip off (twigs, leaves, etc.).
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., III. 415. I must … ther it growed, croppe a plante of peche.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Feb., 58. My budding braunch thou wouldest cropp.
1611. Bible, Ezek. xvii. 4. Hee cropt off the top of his yong twigs.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., Dict., To crop, is to break or pinch of useless Branches without cutting.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 24 a. Leaves of Trees cropt in the wane of the Moon.
b. To gather, pluck, pick or cull (a fruit, flower, or other produce of a plant). arch. or dial.
c. 1450. Myrc, 1502. Hast þow I-come in any sty And cropped ȝerus of corne þe by.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 134. To crop at once a too-long wither’d flowre.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 68. O Fruit Divine, Sweet of thy self, but much more sweet thus cropt.
1680. Otway, Orphan, IV. vii. A cruel Spoiler came, Cropt this fair Rose.
1809. Campbell, Gertr. Wyom., III. xxxvii. The hand is gone that cropt its flowers.
c. Said of animals biting off the tops of plants or herbage in feeding; also absol.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VII. 35. Þei comen in-to my croft, And croppen my Whete.
a. 1500. Mourning of Hare (Hartshorn Metr. Tales 1829). I dar not sit to croppe on hawe.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 77. Neere, we viewd … goats … cropping carelesse, not garded of heerdman.
1644. Quarles, Barnabas & B., 70. Sheep … that crop the springing grass.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., X. 9. Sing, while my Cattel crop the tender Browze.
1717. Pope, Iliad, XI. 686. As the slow Beast … Crops the tall Harvest.
1850. T. T. Lynch, Theoph. Trinal, v. 80. [I] listened to the browse of the sheep as they cropped the grass.
† d. To feed on, eat. Obs. Cf. L. carpere.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 394. Makometh … Daunted a dowue and day and nyȝte hir fedde; Þe corne þat she cropped he caste it in his ere.
3. To gather as a crop; to reap.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, I. i. (1602), A 4.
| And so shall Hesiod too, while vines doe beare, | |
| Or crooked sickles crop the ripened eare. |
1608. Middleton, Peacemaker, Wks. 1886, VIII. 329. The frolic countryman opens the fruitful earth, and crops his plenty from her fertile bosom.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 310. He not only sowed in it the seed of thought for other men and other times, but cropped it for his daily bread.
4. fig. (from 1 to 3). To cut off, lop off; to reap.
1549. Chaloner, Erasmus on Folly, P ij a. Those who through the divells instinction dooe go about to croppe Peters patrimonie.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. ii. 248. On me That cropt the Golden prime of this sweet Prince.
1659. Vulgar Errours Censured, 49. Too tender a Bud to be cropp’d by Death.
1660. R. Coke, Justice Vind., 4. Sophisters cropping of the inventions of other Men.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. V. iii. By the hundred and the thousand, men’s lives are cropt.
5. intr. To bear or yield a crop or crops; also with compl.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. ii. 233. She made great Cæsar lay his Sword to bed, He ploughed her, and she cropt.
1839. Stonehouse, Axholme, 397. No land would crop better than this mixture of warp and peat earth.
1876. Blackmore, Cripps, iii. 18. Oakleaf potatoes … warranted to beat the ash-leaf by a fortnight, and to crop tenfold as much.
6. trans. To cause to bear a crop; to sow or plant with a crop; to raise crops on.
[1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 44. Few after crop much, but noddies and such.]
1607. Relat. Disc., in Arb., Capt. Smith’s Wks., p. xlix. A plaine lowe grownd prepared for seede, part wherof had ben lately cropt.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France (1794), II. x. 28. A field, entirely cropped with mulberries.
1844. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., V. I. 162. It is usually cropped on the four-field or Norfolk course.
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., xxii. (1876), 293. More land would be cropped with barley.
7. To cut off the top or extremity of (the ears, tail, etc.), to cut off short; esp. to cut the ears of animals as a means of identification, and of persons as a punishment.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 172. Stayeth his crying by cropping off the head.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., II. i. 14. Nor crop the eares of them.
1724. Swift, Riddle. My skin he flay’d, my hair he cropt.
1796. Bp. Watson, Apol. Bible, 257. Having their ears cropt for perjury.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, II. 36. As soon as a horse was purchased, his tail was cropped.
1864. W. H. Ainsworth, John Law, II. IV. vii. 173. That cursed puppy ought to have had his ears cropped for his impertinence.
8. spec. a. To cut or clip short the ears, etc., of (an animal, person, etc.).
1578. in W. H. Turner, Select Rec. Oxford, 396. One grey … mare, crapped on the further yeare.
1675. Lond. Gaz., No. 1007/4. 39 fat sheep … cropped in both Ears.
1764. Foote, Patron, I. i. And so get cropped for a libel.
1787. ‘G. Gambado,’ Acad. Horsemen (1809), 24. A horse’s ears cannot well be too long … Were he cropt, and that as close as we sometimes see them now a days, [etc.].
b. To cut the hair of (a person) close.
1796. Hull Advertiser, 21 May, 4/4. To crop, or not to crop, that is the question … and by a crop to say we end The head-ach.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt. (1865), II. IV. xi. 42. Crop him, my jolly Barber; close down to the accurate standard.
c. To clip the nap of (cloth); to shear.
1711. [implied in CROPPER2 2].
1839. Carlyle, Chartism, viii. 163. The Saxon kindred burst forth into cotton-spinning, cloth-cropping.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 343/1. Cloth is usually ‘raised’ twice and ‘cropped’ several times.
d. To cut down the margin of (a book) closely.
1824. Dibdin, Libr. Comp., 378. Copies are usually cropt. I never saw it uncut.
1885. C. Plummer, Fortescue’s Abs. & Lim. Mon., Introd. 88. The manuscript … has been a good deal cropped by the binder.
e. (See quot.)
1851. Greenwell, Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh., 20. Crop … to leave a portion of coal at the bottom of a seam in working.
9. In mining districts (Durham, S. Wales, etc.): To dock, to fine.
1891. Labour Commission, Glossary of Terms.
10. intr. Min. and Geol. Of a stratum, vein, etc.: To come up to the surface; to come out and appear on the side of a slope, etc.
1665. D. Dudley, Metallum Martis (1854), 27. The Coles Ascending, Basseting, or as the Colliers term it, Cropping up even unto the superfices of the earth.
1679. Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 130. The coal which has cropt to the same point of its first diping … before it has reach’t the surface and cropt out, has taken another dip agreeable to the first, and then again another crop agreeable to the former.
1698. St. Clair, in Phil. Trans., XX. 379. A Vein of Bitumen or Naphtha that cropes (as the Miners call it) only here.
1792. Trans. Soc. Enc. Arts, X. 136. Where the different strata or measures crop out.
1855. Lyell, Elem. Geol., v. (ed. 5), 55. The ridges of the beds in the formations a, b, c, come out to the day, or, as the miners say, crop out on the sides of a valley.
1880. Academy, 26 June, 468. The mainland has a foundation of older rock which crops up in many places.
b. fig. To crop up: to come up or turn up unexpectedly or incidentally, in the field of action, conversation or thought.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, II. vi. We shall have new men cropping up every session.
1888. Burgon, Lives 12 Gd. Men, I. ii. 143. The subject of impressive reading having once cropped up in Exeter College common-room.
c. fig. To crop out (rarely forth): to come out, appear, or disclose itself incidentally.
1849. S. R. Maitland, Ess., 288. The charge against the prisoner … crops out in the sequel.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., l. (1856), 486. Some of their superstitions, which crop out now and then through their adopted faith.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., II. 174. All such outrages crop forth I’ the course of nature.
11. To remove the crop of (a bird).
1741. Compl. Fam. Piece, I. ii. 139. Pull, crop, and draw your Pidgeons.
12. To crop the causey (Sc.): to take or keep the ‘crown of the causey,’ to walk boldly in the center or most conspicuous part of the street.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1792), I. 176. All the Covenanters now proudly crop the cawsy.
1887. J. Bulloch, Pynours, iv. 34. The merchant burgesses as a class proudly cropt the causey.
