crop

To suddenly occur or become noticeable. I knew my fears would crop up before I could actually jump from the plane. Problems always seem to crop up when we're about to go away on vacation.

proverb Favorable raw materials will produce a favorable end result or product. I only use the finest ingredients when I bake. Good seed makes a good crop, you know. Of course she's a sweet girl—her parents are very nice, and good seed makes a good crop.

Totally and completely, often abruptly. I can't believe you're just going to stop financially supporting me neck and crop! How am I supposed to buy groceries this week? Even though they got an early lead, we came back and beat them neck and crop!

The best of a particular group. We need to draft this player—he's definitely the cream of the crop. These delicious strawberries are the cream of the crop.

Fig. the best of all. This particular car is the cream of the crop. These three students are very bright. They are the cream of the crop in their class.

to appear on the surface; [for something] to reveal itself in the open; to begin to show above the surface. A layer of rock cropped out at the edges of the desert.

[for a photographer] to cut or trim out someone or something from a photograph. The photographer cropped Mr. Jones out of the picture. See if you can crop out the ugly fence at the side of the house.

to appear without warning; to happen suddenly; [for something] to begin to reveal itself in the open. Some new problems cropped up at the last minute.

Prov. Starting with good materials will help you get good results. Jill: Elsie and Jim are going to have a baby. Jane: I'm sure it will be a good child, since they're both such good people. Good seed makes a good crop. I am sure Robert's business will flourish. He's capable and honest, and good seed makes a good crop.

The best or choicest of anything, as in The apples from this orchard are definitely the cream of the crop. The noun cream has been used to mean "the best" since the 16th century. The French equivalent of the present term, la crème de la crème ("the cream of the cream") was familiar in English by 1800.

Rise to the surface, become visible or evident, as in These superstitions crop out time and again. This term originated in mining, where a stratum or vein of ore is said to crop out when it comes to the surface. [Mid-1800s]

Appear unexpectedly or occasionally, as in One theory that crops up periodically is the influence of sunspots on stock prices, or We hope new talent will crop up in the next freshman class. [Mid-1800s]

If you talk about the cream of the crop, you mean the best people or things in a particular set or group. The first Midlands media degree show features the cream of the crop of this year's graduates in photography, film, and video. They are among the cream of the crop of emerging architects in Scotland.

The very best of all. Cream is, of course, the richest part of milk and rises to the top. It was transferred to mean the best of any collective entity by the seventeenth century. John Ray, for example, included “That’s the cream of the jest” in his collection of English proverbs (1678). The exact locution involving the best of the crop was no doubt adopted for its alliterative appeal. The French version, la crème de la crème, literally “the cream of the cream,” meaning the best of the best, was well known in English by 1800 or so and also is considered a cliché. It gained new impetus in Muriel Spark’s novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, first made into a play, then a motion picture (1969), in which the schoolteacher-heroine assures her students that they will, under her tutelage, become the crème de la crème.