sharecropper

noun share·crop·per \ ˈsher-ˌkrä-pər \

|Updated on: 5 Aug 2018

Definition of sharecropper

: a tenant farmer especially in the southern U.S. who is provided with credit for seed, tools, living quarters, and food, who works the land, and who receives an agreed share of the value of the crop minus charges

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Recent Examples of sharecropper from the Web

Class described the difference between a sharecropper and a plantation owner, between the enslaved person being worked to death in a Caribbean sugar field and an investor living in London on dividends from the sugar trade.

— jedediah purdy, The New Republic, "The Remaking of Class," 27 June 2018
At the time, the town of Money was controlled by a white minority and much of the black population, including Wright, were sharecroppers.

— gabby raymond, Time, "The Justice Department Has Reopened Its Investigation of Emmett Till's Murder. Here Are 5 Things to Know About the Case," 12 July 2018
On a September night in 1944, Mrs. Taylor, then a 24-year-old sharecropper, was raped by six white men.

— gabe cohn, New York Times, "What’s on TV Monday: ‘The Rape of Recy Taylor’ and ‘Strangers’," 2 July 2018
His parents were sharecroppers before joining together with their children in the 1970s to form the Ellison Family Gospel group, which recorded four albums.

— sarah nassauer, WSJ, "J.C. Penney CEO Quits to Join Lowe’s," 22 May 2018
There were tenants and sharecroppers who were organizing, there were unemployed individuals who were organizing.

— sarah jones, The New Republic, "Lessons From the Gilded Age," 13 June 2018
Adolf Hitler tried to do it with the Berlin Olympics in 1936, only for Alabama sharecroppers' son Jesse Owens to steal the show by winning four gold medals.

— john leicester, Fox News, "Column: Salah suckered in inauspicious World Cup start," 12 June 2018
The property is reigned over by the haughty Marchesa Alfonsina de Luna (Nicoletta Braschi, Robert Benigni’s better half), who has about 50 people working for her on her tobacco plantation as sharecroppers.

— boyd van hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter, "'Happy as Lazzaro' ('Lazzaro Felice'): Film Review | Cannes 2018," 13 May 2018
Bright, the 13th of 14th children in a sharecropper family from Dale County, practiced law for 16 years before entering politics and upsetting longtime Montgomery Mayor Emory Folmar in 1999.

— mike cason, AL.com, "Martha Roby draws crowded field in bid for fifth term in Congress," 25 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sharecropper.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of sharecropper

1923

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

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Other Agriculture/Gardening Terms

fallow, graft, heirloom, loam, potash, soilage, swath, tilth, windfall

SHARECROPPER Defined for English Language Learners

sharecropper

noun

Definition of sharecropper for English Language Learners

: a farmer especially in the southern U.S. who raises crops for the owner of a piece of land and is paid a portion of the money from the sale of the crops