crop duster

American  

[krop duhs-ter] / ˈkrɒp ˌdʌs tər /

noun

1. a pilot employed in crop-dusting from an airplane.

   In 1942, he went from being a crop duster in Kansas to being a fighter pilot in the Pacific.

2. an airplane used in crop-dusting.

   I made my first solo flight in that old crop duster.

---

Etymology

Origin of crop duster

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

In Kern County: Mistaken for a government agent by foreign spies, Roger Thornhill, played by Cary Grant, is chased across a barren field in Indiana by a crop duster in “North by Northwest.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 16, 2026

Hankey even hired a crop duster to fly over half of his 30 acres to test whether the plane would move more pollen around in the air and improve fertilization.

From Reuters • Dec. 21, 2022

At age 7, his father paid for him to take a 15-minute flight on a crop duster.

From Washington Post • Mar. 24, 2022

When Troy Bodie was growing up in Manitoba, his father was a crop duster and his mother “ran the books” for then a small family business.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 3, 2021

Mariya Akilina, from the 46th Guards, flew in the medical services and as a crop duster in civil aviation for twenty years after the war; Nadya Popova and Klava Fomicheva worked as flight instructors.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein