cropper
/'krɔpə/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Noun:
- A person who cultivates or harvests a crop; a farmer, especially a small-scale or tenant farmer: This refers to someone whose occupation involves growing crops, often on a small farm or as a tenant.
- A plant that yields a crop of a specified kind: This refers to a plant, especially a fruit or vegetable plant, judged by its productivity.
- A heavy or sudden fall; a failure: This is an informal meaning referring to a bad fall or a significant failure.
Usage Examples
Noun (Farmer): The new policy aims to support local croppers by providing better seeds.Many croppers in the region are struggling with the drought.
Noun (Plant): This variety of tomato is a heavy cropper, producing fruit all summer.We replaced the light croppers in the orchard with more productive trees.
Noun (Fall/Failure - Informal): He took a nasty cropper when his bicycle hit a pothole.The ambitious project came a cropper due to lack of funding.
Advanced Usage
- "to come a cropper" (idiom): To fall heavily or to fail completely and often suddenly.
Variants and Related Words
Crop (noun/verb): The cultivated produce or the act of cutting or harvesting. This is the base word. The main crop is wheat.Sheep crop the grass.
Cropping (noun): The action of cultivating or harvesting crops. Cropping patterns have changed over the years.
Synonyms
- Farmer, grower, cultivator: For the person who farms.
- Bumper crop, high-yielder: For a productive plant (conceptual synonym).
- Spill, tumble, pratfall: For the informal meaning of a fall.
- Failure, fiasco, disaster: For the informal meaning of a failure.
Related Phrases
- Sharecropper (noun): A tenant farmer who pays a share of the crop as rent. (This is a distinct compound word listed here as a related term).
Related Idioms
- "Come a cropper": As detailed in the 'Advanced Usage' section, this is the primary idiom using the word.