- a small farm, especially one worked by a tenant.
- a small plot of ground adjacent to a house and used as a kitchen garden, to pasture one or two cows, etc.; a garden large enough to feed a family or have commercial value.
Origin of croft1
before 1000; Middle English, Old English: small field
- a small, portable filing cabinet of table height, having drop leaves for use as a table.
Origin of croft2
named after the Rev. Sir Herbert Croft (1757–1816), lexicologist, its inventor
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for croft
Eighty years after its publication, the eipc saga of croft farmers and their struggles is still selling steadily.Want to Write a Book? Go to Iceland
May 26, 2014
And it's lucky she is, for she 'bout feeds that boy o' Croft's.The Village Watch-Tower
(AKA Kate Douglas Riggs) Kate Douglas Wiggin
He drove the dog away from his croft and was very rude to Miss McLeod about it.The Mystery of the Green Ray
William Le Queux
Have we not showed it to Mr. Croft, one of your own colleagues?History of the United Netherlands, 1586-89, Vol. II. Complete
John Lothrop Motley
It consisted of a croft of two acres and one acre in the common field.English Monastic Life
We put some hurdles together and carried him back thus to Croft House.The Doctor's Red Lamp
- a small enclosed plot of land, adjoining a house, worked by the occupier and his family, esp in Scotland
- Lancashire dialect a patch of wasteland, formerly one used for bleaching fabric in the sun
Old English croft; related to Middle Dutch krocht hill, field, Old English creopan to creep
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for croft
Old English croft "enclosed field, small field," of unknown etymology. Crofter is 1799, originally Scottish.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper