cropper

[ krop-er ]

noun

1. a person or thing that crops.
2. a person who raises a crop.
3. a person who cultivates land for its owner in return for part of the crop; sharecropper.
4. a plant that furnishes a crop.
5. a cloth-shearing machine.

cropper

/ ˈkrɒpə /

noun

1. a person who cultivates or harvests a crop
2. 1. a cutting machine for removing the heads from castings and ingots
   2. a guillotine for cutting lengths of bar or strip
3. a machine for shearing the nap from cloth
4. a plant or breed of plant that will produce a certain kind of crop under specified conditions

   a poor cropper on light land

5. often capital a variety of domestic pigeon with a puffed-out crop
6. come a cropper informal.
   1. to fall heavily
   2. to fail completely

Word History and Origins

Origin of cropper¹

First recorded in 1475–85; crop + -er ¹

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. come a cropper, Informal.
   1. to fail; be struck by some misfortune:

      His big deal came a cropper.

   2. to fall headlong, especially from a horse.

Example Sentences

“I would hate to imagine the education budget being cut, disruption in higher education funding, civil servants being laid off, healthcare coming a cropper,” he said.

From BBC

They both ended up in hospital after coming a cropper in the parents' race.

From BBC

But Lulu's show came a cropper in 1969 when she booked the Jimi Hendrix Experience as her musical guests.

From BBC

If Labour goes into the next election as the party of higher taxes, as might yet be the case, it could yet come a cropper.

From Washington Post

Manchester United are yet to come a cropper on the road in this season’s Premier League and here’s a mighty fine chance to make it 14 undefeated trips on the spin.

From The Guardian

Related Words

• barrier
• bug
• crunch
• difficulty
• disadvantage
• drawback
• glitch
• hitch
• holdup
• hurdle
• impediment
• inconvenience
• obstacle
• stumbling block