Word.ws English Dictionary

come a cropper

come a cropper verb: to fall headlong from a horse.

Verb

come a cropper (third-person singular simple present comes a cropper, present participle coming a cropper, simple past came a cropper, past participle come a cropper)

  1. (originally) To fall headlong from a horse.
  2. (UK, idiomatic) To suffer some accident or misfortune; to fail.
    • She came a cropper on the stairs and broke her leg.
    • I should feel certain that I should come a cropper, but still I'd try it. As you say, a fellow should try.1879, Anthony Trollope, chapter 67, in The Duke's Children
  3. (informal) To die.
    • “No, Cynthia is a protégée of my mother’s, the daughter of an old schoolfellow of hers, who married a rascally solicitor. He came a cropper, and the girl was left an orphan and penniless. My mother came to the rescue, and Cynthia has been with us nearly two years now.”1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 8

Synonyms of come a cropper

Forms of come a cropper

third-person singular presentcomes a cropper
present participlecoming a cropper
pastcame a cropper
past participlecome a cropper

Origin of come a cropper

Possibly from the phrase neck and crop, in which crop may refer to the backside of a horse.

Questions about come a cropper

What does come a cropper mean?
Come a cropper means to fall headlong from a horse.
What part of speech is come a cropper?
Come a cropper is a verb.
What is the past tense of come a cropper?
The past tense of come a cropper is came a cropper.

Words near come a cropper in the dictionary

  1. comdt
  2. comdts
  3. come
  4. come 'ead
  5. come 'ed
  6. come a cropper
  7. come a gutser
  8. come a long way
  9. come about
  10. come across
  11. come across with

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: come a cropper (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-come a cropper.ogg.

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