crop up

verb

cropped up; cropping up; crops up

intransitive verb

: to come or appear when not expected

New problems crop up every day.

His name crops up frequently as a potential candidate.

Examples of crop up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Eventually, mobile home communities cropped up throughout the country as places for people to park their mobile homes for months, years or permanently. —Cassie Powell, The Conversation, 3 Nov. 2025

Bridges pointed out one of the biggest issues that keeps cropping up. —Roderick Boone, Charlotte Observer, 2 Nov. 2025

At the same time, Stella also got bullied for her seborrheic dermatitis, a different inflammatory skin condition that cropped up on her scalp and created visible patches of flaky skin. —Erica Sloan, SELF, 30 Oct. 2025

Similar shirtless sections have cropped up at UCLA, Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, Washington State, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Texas Tech, North Carolina, Florida International, Oregon and more, no longer reserved for only the down-bad fan bases. —Justin Williams, New York Times, 26 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Note: See note at crop entry 2

First Known Use

1844, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for crop up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup