Word.ws English Dictionary

croft

/kɹɒft/US/kɹɔft/

croft 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.

Noun (1)

croft (plural crofts)

  1. 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.
    • ...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...1530: Sir John Campbell of Glenurchy (in a lease to his "weil belouit" servant John M'Conoquhy V'Gregour)
    • Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft / The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; / And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.1819 September 19, John Keats, “To Autumn”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza 3, page...
    Synonyms:
    quillet

Verb

croft (third-person singular simple present crofts, present participle crofting, simple past and past participle crofted)

  1. (intransitive) To do agricultural work on one or more crofts.
  2. (archaic, transitive) To place (cloth, etc.) on the ground in the open air in order to sun and bleach it.

Noun (2)

croft (plural crofts)

  1. (archaic) An underground chamber; a crypt, an undercroft.
  2. (archaic) A cave or cavern.

Noun (3)

croft (plural crofts)

  1. (archaic) A carafe.

Proper noun capitalized: Croft

Croft

  1. A surname from Middle English, from the common noun croft, and from places named Croft.
  2. A village and civil parish in Warrington borough, Cheshire (OS grid ref SJ6393).
  3. A small village in Croft and Yarpole parish, Herefordshire (OS grid ref SO4565).
  4. A village and civil parish in Blaby district, Leicestershire (OS grid ref SP5195).
  5. A village and civil parish in East Lindsey district, Lincolnshire (OS grid ref TF5061).
  6. An unincorporated community in Pratt County, Kansas, United States.

croft meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Telugu

croft in Tamil

குடியிருப்படுத்த சிறுவிளை நிலம், சிறுபண்ணை, அடைப்பிட்ட நிலம்

croft in Marathi

क्रोफ्ट

croft in Urdu

کروفٹ

croft in Telugu

క్రోఫ్ట్
More languagesFewer languages
croft in Malayalam
ക്രോഫ്റ്റ്, ക്രോഫ്റ്റുചെയ്യാൻ
croft in Kannada
ಕಿರುತೋಟ
croft in Gujarati
ક્રોફ્ટ
croft in Nepali
क्रोफ्ट

Synonyms of croft

Forms of croft

Noun
pluralcrofts
Verb
third-person singular presentcrofts
present participlecrofting
past participlecrofted
pastcrofted

Plural of croft: crofts

Origin of croft

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.

From Middle English croft, crofte, croufte, crufte (“crypt; vault”), from Old English cruft, from Latin crupta, crypta (“crypt; vault”), from Ancient Greek κρυπτή (kruptḗ), feminine form of κρῠπτός (krŭptós, “concealed, hidden; secret”), from κρύπτω (krúptō, “to conceal, hide; to obscure”) (further etymology unknown) + -ος (-os). The English word is cognate with Middle Dutch croft, crocht, crochte, crogt, cruft, crufte (modern Dutch krocht (“underground cavity, cave; underground vault, crypt”)), Middle Low German krucht, kruft (“crypt”), Old High German cruft (Middle High German kruft (“cave; crypt”)). Doublet of grotto and crypt.

A variant of carafe.

Words formed from croft

Words that rhyme with croft

Questions about croft

What does croft mean?
Croft means 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.
What is croft in Tamil?
Croft in Tamil is குடியிருப்படுத்த சிறுவிளை நிலம், சிறுபண்ணை, அடைப்பிட்ட நிலம். See Croft meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is croft?
Croft can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce croft?
Croft is pronounced /kɹɒft/ (UK).
What is the plural of croft?
The plural of croft is crofts.

Words near croft in the dictionary

  1. Crofford
  2. Croffords
  3. Croffs
  4. Crofoot
  5. Crofoots
  6. croft
  7. Croft and Yarpole
  8. Croft Spa
  9. Croft-on-Tees
  10. crofted
  11. crofter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: croft (page history and authors); Croft (page history and authors); croft (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); croft (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); croft (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); croft (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); croft (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); croft (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); croft (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); croft (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-croft.oga.

Cite this entry: “croft.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/croft. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.