cropper

cropper (plural croppers)

1. (normally confined to the expression come a cropper) A fall, a tumble.
   • 1900, Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Avon Books, (translated by James Strachey) page: 185:

     But to myself I thought: ‘Considering that for eight whole years I sat on the front bench as top of the class while he drifted about somewhere in the middle, he can hardly fail to nourish a wish, left over from his schooldays, that some day or other I may come a complete cropper.’

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 29:

     You're riding for a fall, Healey, you know that? There are hedges and ditches ahead and you are on course for an almighty cropper.

crop +‎ -er, in reference to a bird's crop.

cropper (plural croppers)

1. A breed of domestic pigeon with large crop.

crop +‎ -er, in reference to agricultural crops.

cropper (plural croppers)

1. A person who nurtures and gathers a crop.
2. A variety of plant producing a good harvest.

   That potato I grew last year was a good cropper.

crop +‎ -er, from the verb.

cropper (plural croppers)

1. A machine for cropping, as for shearing off bolts or rod iron, or for facing cloth.