noun
harvest
HAH-vihst
noun
1
The gathering in of a ripe crop, or the crop itself once gathered.
"Farmers work long hours during the harvest to bring the wheat in before the rain."
"This year's apple harvest was the biggest in a decade."
2
The season when crops are gathered, roughly early autumn.
"The village holds a festival every year at harvest."
3
The reward or result that comes from an effort or action.
"Years of research finally produced a harvest of useful data."
verb
1
To gather a ripe crop, or to collect something else useful (data, organs, resources) in a similar organized way.
"They harvest the grapes by hand to avoid bruising them."
"The app quietly harvests users' contact lists without asking."
How to Use Harvest
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishBringing in a ripe crop — or, more loosely, gathering any valuable result of work.
Common mistake
In modern tech and data contexts "harvest" often carries a slightly negative, extractive tone (e.g. "harvesting personal data"), unlike its neutral farming sense.
Common pairings
harvest the crop
bumper harvest
harvest data
organ harvest
Word Forms
harvested past tense, harvests plural, harvests singular
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Farmers work long hours during the _____ to bring the wheat in before the rain.
Etymology
From Old English hærfest, meaning "autumn" or "harvest-time" — the word originally named the season itself before it came to mean the act of reaping.