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

The Parkinson family is not alone Other investigations of mothers for child neglect under similar circumstances have regularly cropped up over the past 20 years. — Jennifer L. Brinkley, The Conversation, 19 Oct. 2026

Noma is the latest in a line of cultural districts that have cropped up across the Persian Gulf, from Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue to Riyadh’s JAX District, and Abu Dhabi’s own Miza neighborhood. — News Desk, Artforum, 19 Oct. 2026

What happens next As the local debate over autonomous vehicles intensifies, AV developers are increasingly looking overseas as a potential hedge to more obstacles in cropping up in the US. — Andrew Hawkins, The Verge, 18 Oct. 2026

This fall, Drexler’s wild, maverick sensibility is cropping up all over New York. — Leslie Camhi, New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2026

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