Harvest, n.
Etymology: [OE. harvest, hervest, AS. hærfest autumn; akin to LG. harfst, D. herfst, OHG. herbist, G. herbst, and prob. to L. carpere to pluck, Gr. Carpet.]
1. The gathering of a crop of any kind; the ingathering of the crops; also, the season of gathering grain and fruits, late summer or early autumn. Seedtime and harvest . . . shall not cease. Gen viii. 22. At harvest, when corn is ripe. Tyndale.
2. That which is reaped or ready to be reaped or gath Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Joel iii. 13. To glean the broken ears after the man That the main harvest reaps. Shak.
3. The product or result of any exertion or labor; gain; reward. The pope's principal harvest was in the jubilee. Fuller. The harvest of a quiet eye. Wordsworth. Harvest fish (Zoöl.), a marine fish of the Southern United States (Stromateus alepidotus); -- called whiting in Virginia. Also applied to the dollar fish. -- Harvest fly (Zoöl.), an hemipterous insect of the genus Cicada, often called locust. See Cicada. -- Harvest lord, the head reaper at a harvest. [Obs.] Tusser. -- Harvest mite (Zoöl.), a minute European mite (Leptus autumnalis), of a bright crimson color, which is troublesome by penetrating the skin of man and domestic animals; -- called also harvest louse, and harvest bug. -- Harvest moon, the moon near the full at the time of harvest in England, or about the autumnal equinox, when, by reason of the small angle that is made by the moon's orbit with the horizon, it rises nearly at the same hour for several days. -- Harvest mouse (Zoöl.), a very small European field mouse (Mus minutus). It builds a globular nest on the stems of wheat and other plants. -- Harvest queen, an image pepresenting Ceres, formerly carried about on the last day of harvest. Milton. -- Harvest spider. (Zoöl.) See Daddy longlegs.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Harvest, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Harvested; p. pr. & vb. n. Harvesting.]
To reap or gather, as any crop.
Shades of meaning
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. "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few," Luke x, 2. "Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest," John iv, 35. 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. 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. Produce is a collective word for all that is produced in farming or gardening, and is, in modern usage, almost wholly restricted to this sense; we speak of produce collectively, but of a product or various products; vegetables, fruits, eggs, butter, etc., may be termed farm-produce, or the products of the farm. Product is a word of wider application than produce; we speak of the products of manufacturing, the products of thought, or the product obtained by multiplying one number by another. The word proceeds is chiefly used of the return from an investment: we speak of the produce of a farm, but of the proceeds of the money invested in farming. The yield is what the land gives up to the farmer's demand; we speak of the return from an expenditure of money or labor, but of the yield of corn or oats. 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. As regards time, harvest, harvest-tide, and harvest-time alike denote the period or season when the crops are or should be gathered (tide being simply the old Saxon word for time). Harvest-home ordinarily denotes the festival of harvest, and when used to denote simply the season always gives a suggestion of festivity and rejoicing, such as harvest and harvest-time by themselves do not express.