harvest
UK /ˈhɑː(ɹ)vɪst/ · US /ˈhɑɹ.vəst/ noun, verb
Forms harvests harvesting harvested harvist hervest harst hairst
- noun (agriculture) The process of gathering the ripened crop; harvesting. “The constant rain made the harvest a nightmare this year.”
- noun The yield of harvesting, i.e., the gathered crops or fruits. “This year's cotton harvest was great but the corn harvest was disastrous.”
- noun (by extension) The product or result of any exertion or course of action; reward or consequences. “The surveillance mission yielded a healthy harvest of intel.”
- noun The season of gathering ripened crops; specifically, the time of reaping and gathering grain.
- noun (UK, dialectal) The third season of the year; autumn; fall. “Harvest is usually very damp and rainy.”
- noun (paganism) A modern pagan ceremony held on or around the autumn equinox, which is in the harvesting season.
- verb (transitive) To bring in a harvest; reap; glean. “We harvested the apples in September already.”
- verb (transitive) To take a living organism as part of a managed process to gather food or resources, often with the intention of maintaining a healthy population. “An efficient rifle or shotgun can harvest a deer for venison.”
- verb (transitive) To take (an organ) from an organ donor.
- verb (intransitive) To be occupied bringing in a harvest. “We're going to harvest day and night, because the weather is about to turn sour.”
- verb (transitive) To win, achieve a gain. “The rising star harvested well-deserved acclaim, even an Oscar under 21.”
Synonyms
crop gather autumn fall harvesting harvest home harvest time reap glean
Etymology
From Middle English harvest, hervest, from Old English hærfest (“autumn, harvest-time; August”), from Proto-West Germanic *harbist, from Proto-Germanic *harbistaz (“harvest-time, autumn, fall”), from *harbaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kerp-.
Cognate with Sylt North Frisian Hārefst, West Frisian hjerst, Dutch herfst, German Herbst, dated German Low German Harvst, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål høst, Norwegian Nynorsk haust; further with Latin carpere (“to seize”), Ancient Greek καρπός (karpós, “fruit”), κείρω (keírō, “to cut off”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The gathering of a crop of any kind; the ingathering of the crops; also, the season of gathering grain and fruits, late summer or early autumn.
- noun That which is reaped or ready to be reaped or gath Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Joel iii. 13.
- verb To reap or gather, as any crop.
Etymology [OE. harvest, hervest, AS. hærfest autumn; akin to LG. harfst, D. herfst, OHG. herbist, G. herbst, and prob. to L. carpere to pluck, Gr. Carpet.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “harvest”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details