croft
/kɹɔft/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.17 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
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.
verb
To place (cloth, etc.) on the ground in the open air in order to sun and bleach it.
Archaic; Transitive verb
name
A surname from Middle English, from the common noun croft, and from places named Croft.
Example Sentences
- "...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."
Etymology
The 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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kɹɔft/
- British English: /kɹɒft/