sharecropping
sharecropping Lexical Profile
sharecropping Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that portion of land.
"After the Civil War, many formerly enslaved families turned to sharecropping to earn a living, though the system often trapped them in cycles of debt."
• verb
To farm land as a tenant while giving a portion of the harvested crop to the landowner as rent (present participle of sharecrop).
"His grandparents spent decades sharecropping cotton on a large estate in the Mississippi Delta before purchasing their own plot of land."
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in American English in the early 20th century as a compound of 'share' and 'crop', describing the agricultural tenancy system that became widespread in the American South following the Civil War and Reconstruction.