/kɹɔf/, /kɹɒft/, /kɹɔft/
OriginThe noun is derived from Middle English croft, crofft, croffte, croofte, crofte (“croft”), from Old English croft (“enclosed field”); further etymology uncertain, but possibly from Proto-Germanic *kruftaz (“a hill; a curve”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to bend; arch, crook, curve”); see also crop. The English word is cognate with Middle Dutch kroft, krocht, crocht (“high and dry land; a field on the downs”), Middle Low German kroch (“enclosed piece of farmland or pasture”), Scots croft, craft (“croft”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
- An enclosed piece of land, usually small and arable and used for small-scale food production, and often with a dwelling next to it; in particular, such a piece of land rented to a farmer (a crofter), especially in Scotland, together with a right to use separate pastureland shared by other crofters.
“...to haue set and for malis and service...the four markland of Kincrakin...with the croft of Polgreyich and the croft that Ewin M'Ewin was wount to haue...”
“Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft / The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; / And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.”
- archaicAn underground chamber; a crypt, an undercroft.
- archaicA cave or cavern.
- archaicA carafe.
- intransitiveTo do agricultural work on one or more crofts.
- archaic, transitiveTo place (cloth, etc.) on the ground in the open air in order to sun and bleach it.
- A surname from Middle English, from the common noun croft, and from places named Croft.
- A village and civil parish in Warrington borough, Cheshire, England (OS grid ref SJ6393).
- A village and civil parish in Blaby district, Leicestershire, England (OS grid ref SP5195).
- A village and civil parish in East Lindsey district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF5061).
- An unincorporated community in Pratt County, Kansas, United States.
Formscrofts(plural) · crofts(present, singular, third-person) · crofting(participle, present) · crofted(participle, past) · crofted(past)