Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A breed of pigeons with a large crop. See
pouter . - noun A fall, as from horseback; especially, a fall in which the rider is thrown neck and crop over the horse's head; hence, failure in an undertaking.
- noun A machine for facing cloth.
- noun A powerful hand-tool for cutting off bolts or iron rods.
- noun A plant which furnishes a crop: qualified by large or small, heavy or light, etc.
- noun One who raises a crop or crops on shares; one who cultivates land for its owner in consideration of part of the crop.
- noun A small bed-and-platen printing-press invented by George P. Gordon (1858) of New York, but named from the machinist (H. S. Cropper) who introduced it into Great Britain.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One that crops.
- noun A variety of pigeon with a large crop; a pouter.
- noun (Mech.) A machine for cropping, as for shearing off bolts or rod iron, or for facing cloth.
- noun Slang. A fall on one's head when riding at full speed, as in hunting; hence, a sudden failure or collapse.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a
fall , atumble ; seecome a cropper - noun a breed of domestic
pigeon with large crop - noun a person who nurtures and gathers a crop
- noun a variety of plant producing a good harvest
- noun A machine for cropping, as for shearing off bolts or rod iron, or for facing cloth.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun small farmers and tenants
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Thus the cropper was a worker, not an owner; his status was halfway between a kind of serfdom and the autonomy of ownership.
A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985
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Thus the cropper was a worker, not an owner; his status was halfway between a kind of serfdom and the autonomy of ownership.
A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985
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Thus the cropper was a worker, not an owner; his status was halfway between a kind of serfdom and the autonomy of ownership.
A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985
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Humor likes to explode pretension, pedantry, dignity, pomposity; we get a feeling of joy whenever those who are superior come a cropper, which is increased when we feel that they have no right to their places.
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But it probably doesn't affect anything even remotely, except to boost the morale of the looney Fascists of Hamas, their Euro-wally supporters, et al. But that is not necessarily bad, it may encourage them to get over-confident, over-step "the mark" and come the proverbial "cropper".
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009
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The "cropper" is barely a step advanced above the laborer, for he, too, furnishes nothing but labor, while the landlord supplies house, tools, live stock, and seed.
Our Foreigners A Chronicle of Americans in the Making Samuel Peter Orth 1897
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There would be no 'cropper' which a man could 'come' so bad as would be his cropper were he to marry Marie Melmotte, and then find that he was not to have a shilling!
The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope 1848
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a well-developed "cropper;" his dromedary had put its foot in a hole, and had fallen with a suddenness generally unknown to the cameline race.
The Land of Midian — Volume 2 Richard Francis Burton 1855
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"It isn't the first 'cropper' I have come; I shouldn't have minded at all, only for my head.
Three Margarets Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards 1896
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Carl Levin's political witch hunt comes a cropper.
Crime & Punishment & Goldman Jr. Holman W. Jenkins 2011
kalidas commented on the word cropper
his delusions and the croppers they cost him -- Edmund Wilson
to see their betters come a cropper -- Tyrone Guthrie
January 2, 2007
hernesheir commented on the word cropper
A printing press, a pigeon, a farmer, a fall from a horse. You pick.
November 22, 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word cropper
"E. J. Sullivan, for instance, is a master both of illustration and decoration, with a curiously flexible technique, accomplished and fascinating in much the same way as the dangerous feats of an acrobat who keeps us wondering if he will avoid a cropper, and comes up smiling every time . . . ."
--The Art of Pen Drawing: A manual for students, illustrators, and commercial artists by G. Montague Ellwood
November 28, 2024