sharecropper

noun

share·​crop·​per ˈsher-ˌkrä-pər How to pronounce sharecropper (audio)
: 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

Examples of sharecropper in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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This most recent suite was inspired by a photo of a meteorite in an antique geology textbook, whose caption described its near-collision with an unnamed sharecropper in nineteen-twenties Mississippi. Julian Lucas, New Yorker, 5 May 2025 The idea was developed based on communal or cooperative communities in Israel and was implemented to help Black sharecroppers in Southwest Georgia who were being forced off their land by white farmers because of their participation in the Civil Rights Movement. Kamal Morgan, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 25 Apr. 2025 Born in West Virginia to parents who were sharecroppers, Ella P. Stewart was endowed with persistence and motivation in equal measure. Sara Ivry, JSTOR Daily, 19 Feb. 2025 She was born in 1919 in Plant City in central Florida to sharecropper parents, who also picked strawberries for a living. Bea L. Hines, Miami Herald, 13 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for sharecropper

Word History

First Known Use

1871, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of sharecropper was in 1871

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Cite this Entry

“Sharecropper.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sharecropper. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.

Kids Definition

sharecropper

noun
share·​crop·​per ˈshe(ə)r-ˌkräp-ər How to pronounce sharecropper (audio)
ˈsha(ə)r-
: a farmer who works land for the owner in return for a share of the value of the crop

More from Merriam-Webster on sharecropper

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