crop up

noun

1. the cultivated produce of the ground, while growing or when gathered: the wheat crop.
2. the yield of such produce for a particular season.
3. the yield of some other product in a season: the crop of diamonds.
4. a supply produced.
5. a collection or group of persons or things appearing or occurring together: this year’s crop of students.
6. the stock or handle of a whip.
7. Also called riding crop. a short riding whip consisting of a stock without a lash.
8. Also called craw. Zoology.
   1. a pouch in the esophagus of many birds, in which food is held for later digestion or for regurgitation to nestlings.
   2. a chamber or pouch in the foregut of arthropods and annelids for holding and partly crushing food.
9. the act of cropping.
10. a mark produced by clipping the ears, as of cattle.
11. a close-cropped hair style.
12. a head of hair so cut.
13. an entire tanned hide of an animal.
14. Mining. an outcrop of a vein or seam.

verb (used with object), cropped or (Archaic) cropt; crop·ping.

15. to cut off or remove the head or top of (a plant, grass, etc.).
16. to cut off the ends or a part of: to crop the ears of a dog.
17. to cut short.
18. to clip the ears, hair, etc., of.
19. Photography. to cut off or mask the unwanted parts of (a print or negative).
20. to cause to bear a crop or crops.
21. to graze off (the tops of plants, grass, etc.): The sheep cropped the lawn.

verb (used without object), cropped or (Archaic) cropt; crop·ping.

22. to bear or yield a crop or crops.
23. to feed by cropping or grazing.

Verb Phrases

24. crop out,
    1. Geology, Mining.to rise to the surface of the ground: Veins of quartz crop out in the canyon walls.
    2. to become evident or visible; occur: A few cases of smallpox still crop out every now and then.
25. crop up, to appear, especially suddenly or unexpectedly: A new problem cropped up.

verb

1. (intr, adverb) informal to occur or appear, esp unexpectedly

noun

1. the produce of cultivated plants, esp cereals, vegetables, and fruit
2. 1. the amount of such produce in any particular season
   2. the yield of some other farm producethe lamb crop
3. a group of products, thoughts, people, etc, appearing at one time or in one seasona crop of new publications
4. the stock of a thonged whip
5. short for riding crop
6. 1. a pouchlike expanded part of the oesophagus of birds, in which food is stored or partially digested before passing on to the gizzard
   2. a similar structure in insects, earthworms, and other invertebrates
7. the entire tanned hide of an animal
8. a short cropped hairstyleSee also Eton crop
9. a notch in or a piece cut out of the ear of an animal
10. the act of cropping

verb crops, cropping or cropped (mainly tr)

11. to cut (hair, grass, etc) very short
12. to cut and collect (mature produce) from the land or plant on which it has been grown
13. to clip part of (the ear or ears) of (an animal), esp as a means of identification
14. (also intr) to cause (land) to bear or (of land) to bear or yield a cropthe land cropped well
15. (of herbivorous animals) to graze on (grass or similar vegetation)
16. photog to cut off or mask unwanted edges or areas of (a negative or print)

n.

Old English cropp “bird’s craw,” also “head or top of a sprout or herb.” The common notion is “protuberance.” Cognate with Old High German kropf, Old Norse kroppr. Meaning “harvest product” is c.1300, probably through the verbal meaning “cut off the top of a plant” (c.1200).

v.

“cut off the top of a plant,” c.1200, from crop (n.). The general meaning of “to cut off” is mid-15c. Related: Cropped; cropping. Women’s fashion crop top is attested from 1984.

Appear unexpectedly or occasionally, as in One theory that crops up periodically is the influence of sunspots on stock prices, or We hope new talent will crop up in the next freshman class. [Mid-1800s]

In addition to the idioms beginning with crop

• crop out
• crop up

also see:

• cream of the crop