harvest

1 of 2

noun

har·​vest ˈhär-vəst 

often attributive

1

: the season for gathering in agricultural crops

the beginning of the harvest

2

: the act or process of gathering in a crop

assisting neighbors in their harvest

3

a

: a mature crop (as of grain or fruit) : yield

bountiful harvests

b

: the quantity of a natural product gathered in a single season

the salmon harvest

timber harvests

4

: an accumulated store or productive result

a harvest of revenue

harvest

2 of 2

verb

harvested; harvesting; harvests

transitive verb

1

a

: to gather in (a crop) : reap

harvesting corn

b

: to gather, catch, hunt, or kill (salmon, oysters, deer, etc.) for human use, sport, or population control

c

: to remove or extract (something, such as living cells, tissues, or organs) from culture (see culture entry 1 sense 3) or from a living or recently deceased body especially for transplanting

2

a

: to accumulate a store of

has now harvested this new generation's scholarly labors

—M. J. Wiener

b

: to win by achievement

the team harvested several awards

intransitive verb

: to gather in a crop especially for food

sold it standing in the field to save himself the trouble of harvesting

—Pearl Buck

harvestable

ˈhär-və-stə-bəl 

adjective

harvester noun

Synonyms

Noun

• crop

Verb

• gather
• pick
• reap

Examples of harvest in a Sentence

Noun

The beginning of the harvest varies from year to year.

It is time for the harvest.

They prayed for a bountiful harvest.

We had enormous harvests of corn this year.

Verb

It is time to harvest the wheat.

They want to harvest timber in these woods.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Glyphosate is used widely as an integral part of raising crops including corn, soybeans and cotton genetically modified to resist its killer effect, and as a desiccant on potatoes, sugar beets, wheat and other crops just before harvest. —John Klar, Baltimore Sun, 27 Apr. 2025

Unfortunately, food fraud spikes when prices rise and supply of the good stuff goes down and following one of the worst Mediterranean olive harvests in history, that is the sad story right now. —Larry Olmsted, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025

Verb

Farms are struggling to find enough workers to harvest crops, which results in lower yields, a tight supply, and higher costs for consumers. —Mohammed Soliman, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Apr. 2025

Some content is less Miami Vice and more cottagecore: farmers harvesting poppy seeds, for instance. —Antón Barba-Kay, The Atlantic, 26 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Verb

Middle English hervest, from Old English hærfest; akin to Latin carpere to pluck, gather, Greek karpos fruit

First Known Use

Noun

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1a

Phrases Containing harvest

• harvest fly
• harvest home
• harvest mite
• harvest moon
• pre-harvest

Rhymes for harvest

• postharvest
• preharvest

Kids Definition

harvest

1 of 2 noun

har·​vest ˈhär-vəst 

1

: the season when crops are gathered

2

: the gathering of a crop

3

: a ripe crop (as of grain or fruit)

also : the quantity of a crop gathered in a single season

harvest

2 of 2 verb

1

: to gather in a crop : reap

2

: to gather as if by harvesting

harvest timber