| 释义 |
▪ I. cropper1|ˈkrɒpə(r)|
[f. crop n.1 + -er1.]
A breed of pigeons having the power of greatly distending or puffing up their crops; a pouter.
1655Walton Angler 101 There be Cropers, Carryers, Runts. 1678Ray Willughby's Ornith. ii. xv. §2 Pigeons..croppers, so called because they can and usually do by attracting the air blow up their crops to that strange bigness that they exceed the bulk of the whole body beside. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) II. iv. viii. 126. 1850 E. S. Dixon in Tegetmeier Pigeons v. (1867) 54 Pouters..Provincially they are called Croppers. 1891Daily News 7 Jan. 3/4 Those Norwich croppers are not half so puffed up as they seem.
▪ II. ˈcropper2
[f. crop n. or v. + -er.]
1. One who or that which crops. spec. a shearing machine in iron and steel work; also, the workman who operates it.
1483Cath. Angl. 84 A Cropper, decimator. 1881Sat. Rev. No. 1319. 182 One can imagine Cicero..imploring the binder to leave the rough edges, and imploring in vain..But..binders were often slaves, and an angry amateur would throw the cropper to feed the lampreys. a1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Cropper, a powerful hand machine for shearing off bolts or rod iron. 1921Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §279 Cropper (iron and steel rolling); forge cropper, mill cropper and shearer; a shearer or a hot sawyer who cuts off badly shaped ends of finished bars of iron or steel after rolling. 1937Times 13 Apr. p. xxxviii/1 Portable hand-lamps, bolt croppers, insulated pliers.
2. A workman who shears the nap of cloth; a cloth-shearer; also, a machine for doing this.
1711Thoresby Diary (1830) II. 89 A fund for the aged and poor croppers at 2d or 4d per cloth. 1888F. Peel Luddites 42 The discontented croppers of Liversedge.
3. One who raises a crop, or successive crops.
Locally in U.S. and elsewhere used more or less specifically: see quots.
1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 44 What croppers bee here learne to see. Ibid. 50 Though breadcorne and drinkcorn such croppers do stand: count peason or brank, as a comfort to land. 1850Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XI. ii. 727 The land is occupied by tenants called Croppers, who pay rents amounting to 5l. or 6l. per acre, which they are enabled to pay by never letting the land lie idle, and growing crops of vegetables in rapid succession, which they carry to the Bristol market. 1886Q. Rev. Oct. 109 A cropper hires for two years, at a low rent from a squatter, a bit of waste land, undertaking to clear it and grow wheat upon it. After this it is ready for English grass. To succeed, a cropper must work hard with his own hands. 1889Farmer Dict. Amer., Cropper, a farmer on commission, the consideration being..calculated by the proprietor on the basis of the crop produced.
4. A plant which yields a crop. (Usually with qualification.)
1845Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VI. ii. 352 The best croppers for feeding cattle. 1882Garden 14 Jan. 19/3 Apples and Pears..having the stamp of excellent croppers.
5. Comb. cropper-worker: One who works a cropping-machine (for cloth).
1891Labour Commission, Glossary of Terms.
▪ III. ˈcropper3 colloq.
[perh. from phrase neck and crop.]
A heavy fall; usually in phr. come (fall, get) a cropper: often fig.
1858R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma liii. 244 [He] rode at an impracticable fence, and got a cropper for his pains. 1874Hotten Slang Dict. 133 Cropper, ‘to go a cropper’, or ‘to come a cropper’, i.e., to fail badly. 1874Trollope Way We live Now (1875) I. xxxviii. 241 He would ‘be coming a cropper rather’, were he to marry Melmotte's daughter for her money, and then find that she had got none. 1877H. A. Leveson Sport Many Lands 464 My horse put his foot in a hole and came down a cropper. 1951T. Rattigan Who is Sylvia? i. 230 We bachelors welcome competition from married men. We so much enjoy watching them come the inevitable cropper. 1963Times 30 Jan. 1/7, I came a proper cropper, dearie, all black and blue I was.
▪ IV. cropper4
Printing. The name given to a small printing-machine, the Minerva platen, after H. S. Cropper, the inventor (1866). Also attrib., as cropper boy, cropper-hand, cropper-machine, cropper work.
1881Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 40 Letter-Press Printing:..Cropper Hand. 1888Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 28 Cropper, a short term for the ‘cropper’ small printing platen machine. 1892Daily News 23 Sept. 8/6, Printers' Advt., Cropper hand wants work. 1896Daily News 30 Oct. 10/6 Compositor (young). Jobbing and cropper. 1901Daily Chron. 3 Dec. 9/7 Printers.—Young man seeks Situation in machine room; good reference for Cropper work. 1903Ibid. 4 Mar. 9/7 Printers.—Cropper boy wanted. 1921Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §529 Machine minder, platen; cropper hand; has charge of platen machine.
▪ V. cropper(e
obs. form of crupper. |