# croft
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) enPR: krŏft, IPA: /kɹɒft/
* Audio (UK):(file)
* (General American) enPR: krôft, IPA: /kɹɔft/
* (cot–caught merger) enPR: krŏft, IPA: /kɹɑft/
* Rhymes: -ɒft

### Etymology 1

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.

#### Noun

croft (plural crofts)
* 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.
    Synonym: quillet
** 1530: Sir John Campbell of Glenurchy (in a lease to his "weil belouit" servant John M'Conoquhy V'Gregour)
    ...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...
** 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 139:Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft / The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; / And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

##### Derived terms

* croftland
* goodman's croft
* Moorcroft
* toft and croft

##### Translations
#### Verb

croft (third-person singular simple present crofts, present participle crofting, simple past and past participle crofted)
* (intransitive) To do agricultural work on one or more crofts.
* (transitive, archaic) To place (cloth, etc.) on the ground in the open air in order to sun and bleach it.

##### Derived terms

* crofter
* crofting

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

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.

#### Noun

croft (plural crofts) (archaic)
* An underground chamber; a crypt, an undercroft.
* A cave or cavern.

##### Derived terms

* undercroft

##### Translations
### Etymology 3

A variant of carafe.

#### Noun

croft (plural crofts)
* (archaic) A carafe.

### References

* ↑ “croft, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 16 August 2019.
* 1 2 “croft, n.$^1$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1893.
* ↑ “croft, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* ↑ “croft, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1893; “croft, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* 1 2 “croft, n.$^2$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2011.
* ↑ “crufte, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 16 August 2019.
* ↑ “croft, n.$^3$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1893.

### Further reading

* croft (land) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* croft (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* “croft”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* ROTFC, forc't

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* crofft, croffte, crofte, croofte

### Etymology

From Old English croft, possibly from Proto-Germanic *kruftaz, from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to curve, bend, crawl”), from *ger- (“to turn, wind”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /krɔft/

### Noun

croft (plural croftes)
* croft (small field)
* (by extension) enclosure, courtyard

#### Descendants

* English: croft
* Scots: croft, craft

#### References

* “croft, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ Pokorny, Julius (1959) “385-90”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, pages 385-90

## Old English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kroft/

### Noun

croft m
* an enclosed field; a croft

#### Descendants

* Middle English: croft, crofft, croffte, crofte, croofte
** English: croft
** Scots: croft, craft