Crop (krp), n.
Etymology: [OE. crop, croppe, craw, top of a plant, harvest, AS. crop, cropp, craw, top, bunch, ear of corn; akin to D. krop craw, G. kropf, Icel. kroppr hump or bunch on the body, body; but cf. also W. cropa, croppa, crop or craw of a bird, Ir. & Gael. sgroban. Cf. Croup, Crupper, Croup.]
1. The pouchlike enlargement of the gullet of birds, serving as a receptacle for food; the craw.
2. The top, end, or highest part of anything, especially of a plant or tree. [Obs.] "Crop and root." Chaucer.
3. That which is cropped, cut, or gathered from a single felld, or of a single kind of grain or fruit, or in a single season; especially, the product of what is planted in the earth; fruit; harvest. Lab'ring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop, Corn, wine, and oil. Milton.
4. Grain or other product of the field while standing.
6 more senses
5. Anything cut off or gathered. Guiltless of steel, and from the razor free, It falls a plenteous crop reserved for thee. Dryden.
6. Hair cut close or short, or the act or style of so cutting; as, a convict's crop.
7. (Arch.)
A projecting ornament in carved stone. Specifically, a finial. [Obs.]
8. (Mining.) (a) Tin ore prepared for smelting. (b) Outcrop of a vein or seam at the surface. Knight.
9. A riding whip with a loop instead of a lash. Neck and crop, altogether; roughly and at once. [Colloq.]
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Crop, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cropped (krpt); p. pr. & vb. n. Cropping.]
1. To cut off the tops or tips of; to bite or pull off; to browse; to pluck; to mow; to reap. I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one. Ezek. xvii. 22.
2. Fig.: To cut off, as if in harvest. Death . . . .crops the growing boys. Creech.
3. To cause to bear a crop; as, to crop a field.
Crop, v. i.
To yield harvest. To crop out. (a) (Geol.) To appear above the surface, as a seam or vein, or inclined bed, as of coal. (b) To come to light; to be manifest; to appear; as, the peculiarities of an author crop out. -- To crop up, to sprout; to spring up. "Cares crop up in villas." Beaconsfield.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for crop; he lists it under harvest.
Where he writes about it:
Harvest, from the Anglo-Saxon, signified originally "autumn," and as that is the usual season of gathering ripened crops in Northern lands, the word came to its present meaning of the season of gathering ripened grain or fruits, whether summer or autumn, and hence a crop gathered or ready for gathering; also, the act or process of gathering a crop or crops. — from harvest
Harvest is the elegant and literary word; crop is the common and commercial expression; we say a man sells his crop, but we should not speak of his selling his harvest; we speak of an ample or abundant harvest, a good crop. — from harvest
Harvest is applied almost wholly to grain; crop applies to almost anything that is gathered in; we speak of the potato-crop, not the potato-harvest; we may say either the wheat-crop or the wheat-harvest. — from harvest
Harvest has also a figurative use, such as crop more rarely permits; we term a religious revival a harvest of souls; the result of lax enforcement of law is a harvest of crime. — from harvest