often attributive
1
: the season for gathering in agricultural crops
the beginning of the harvest
2
: the act or process of gathering in a crop
assisting neighbors in their harvest
3
a
: a mature crop (as of grain or fruit) : yield
bountiful harvests
b
: the quantity of a natural product gathered in a single season
the salmon harvest
timber harvests
4
: an accumulated store or productive result
a harvest of revenue
harvested; harvesting; harvests
1
a
: to gather in (a crop) : reap
harvesting corn
b
: to gather, catch, hunt, or kill (salmon, oysters, deer, etc.) for human use, sport, or population control
c
: to remove or extract (something, such as living cells, tissues, or organs) from culture (see culture entry 1 sense 3) or from a living or recently deceased body especially for transplanting
2
a
: to accumulate a store of
has now harvested this new generation's scholarly labors—
M. J. Wiener
M. J. Wiener
b
: to win by achievement
the team harvested several awards
: to gather in a crop especially for food
sold it standing in the field to save himself the trouble of harvesting—Pearl Buck
Pearl Buck
harvester
noun
Examples of harvest in a Sentence
Noun
The beginning of the harvest varies from year to year.
It is time for the harvest.
They prayed for a bountiful harvest.
We had enormous harvests of corn this year.
Verb
It is time to harvest the wheat.
They want to harvest timber in these woods.
Recent Examples on the Web
John Klar, Baltimore Sun, 27 Apr. 2025
Unfortunately, food fraud spikes when prices rise and supply of the good stuff goes down and following one of the worst Mediterranean olive harvests in history, that is the sad story right now.
—Larry Olmsted, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025
Paul Mozur, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2025
The crop can be harvested at anytime but most leave the bulbs in the ground until the tops decline and flop over.
—Tom MacCubbin, The Orlando Sentinel, 12 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for harvest
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Noun
Glyphosate is used widely as an integral part of raising crops including corn, soybeans and cotton genetically modified to resist its killer effect, and as a desiccant on potatoes, sugar beets, wheat and other crops just before harvest.
—John Klar, Baltimore Sun, 27 Apr. 2025
Unfortunately, food fraud spikes when prices rise and supply of the good stuff goes down and following one of the worst Mediterranean olive harvests in history, that is the sad story right now.
—Larry Olmsted, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025
Verb
In 2019, during the first Trump administration, agents in Mississippi used data harvested from Geo Group’s tools to help secure a warrant for a raid on a chicken processing plant.
—Paul Mozur, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2025
The crop can be harvested at anytime but most leave the bulbs in the ground until the tops decline and flop over.
—Tom MacCubbin, The Orlando Sentinel, 12 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for harvest
Cite this Entry
“Harvest.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/harvest. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
harvest
1 of 2 noun
har·vest
ˈhär-vəst 
1
: the season when crops are gathered
2
: the gathering of a crop
3
: a ripe crop (as of grain or fruit)
also
: the quantity of a crop gathered in a single season
harvest
2 of 2 verb1
: to gather in a crop : reap
2
: to gather as if by harvesting
harvest timber
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