croft
See also: Croft
English
Etymology
From Middle English croft, from Old English croft (“a small enclosed field; croft”), from Proto-Germanic *kruftaz (“a hill; curve”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to bend; crook; curve; arch”). Cognate with Scots croft, craft (“croft”), Middle Dutch kroft, krocht, crocht (“high and dry land; a field on the downs”), Middle Low German kroch (“enclosed piece of farmland or pasture”).
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /kɹɔft/, enPR: krôft
- (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA(key): /kɹɑft/, enPR: krŏft
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kɹɒft/, enPR: krŏft
- Rhymes: -ɒft
Noun
croft (plural crofts)
- A fenced piece of land, especially in Scotland, usually small and arable and used for small-scale food production and usually with a crofter's dwelling thereon.
- 1530: Sir John Campbell of Glenurchy (in a lease to his "weil belouit" servant John M'Conoquhy V'Gregour)
- ...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...
- 1819, Keats, To Autumn:
- Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
- The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
- 1530: Sir John Campbell of Glenurchy (in a lease to his "weil belouit" servant John M'Conoquhy V'Gregour)
- (archaic) A carafe.
Synonyms
- (fenced piece of land): quillet
Derived terms
Translations
Anagrams
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