crop Idiom, Proverb
cream of the crop
best of a group, the top choice The company is well-known as a good place to work and is always able to hire the cream of the crop of university graduates.
crop up
happen, occur, come up I'm planning to go to Montreal unless something crops up - like an airline strike.
come a cropper
1. to fall heavily
2. to fail
cash crop|cash|crop
n. A crop grown to be sold.
Cotton is a cash crop in the South. They raise potatoes to eat, but tobacco is their cash crop.
come a cropper|come|cropper
1. To fall off your horse.
John's horse stumbled, and John came a cropper. 2. To fail.
Mr. Brown did not have enough money to put into his business and it soon came a cropper. Compare: RIDING FOR A FALL.
cream of the crop|cream|crop
n. phr. The best of a group; the top choice.
May Queen candidates were lovely, but Betsy and Nancy were the cream of the crop. The students had drawn many good pictures and the teacher chose the cream of the crop to hang up when the parents came to visit.
crop out|crop
v. To appear at the surface; come through or show through from hiding or concealment.
Rocks often crop out in New England pasture land. A hidden hate cropped out in his words.
crop up|crop
v. To come without warning; appear or happen unexpectedly.
Problems cropped up almost every day when Mr. Reed was building his TV station. Serious trouble cropped up just when Martin thought the problem of his college education was solved. Compare: TURN UP.
stick in one's craw|craw|crop|stick|stuck in one's
v. phr. To make you angry; bother you; annoy you.
His parents' praise of his brother stuck in Jerry's craw. Sue's failure to get a better grade than Ann stuck in her crop.
cream of the crop, the
cream of the crop, the The best or choicest of anything, as in
The apples from this orchard are definitely the cream of the crop. The noun
cream has been used to mean “the best” since the 16th century. The French equivalent of the present term,
la crème de la crème (“the cream of the cream”) was familiar in English by 1800.
crop
crop In addition to the idioms beginning with
crop, also see
cream of the crop, the.
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crop out -
crop up
crop out
crop out Rise to the surface, become visible or evident, as in
These superstitions crop out time and again. This term originated in mining, where a stratum or vein of ore is said to crop out when it comes to the surface. [Mid-1800s]
cropper
cropper come a cropper Informal 1) to fall heavily or headlong
2) to come to ruin; fail