• (RP) enPR: krŏft, IPA: /kɹɒft/
• (GA) enPR: krôft, IPA: /kɹɔft/
• (Canada, cot-caught) enPR: krŏft, IPA: /kɹɑft/

croft (plural crofts)

1. An enclosed#Adjective|enclosed piece of land#Noun|land, usually small and arable and used for small-scale food production, and often with a dwelling#Noun|dwelling next to it; in particular, such a piece of land rent#Verb|rented to a farmer (a crofter), especially in Scotland, together with a right to use#Verb|use separate#Adjective|separate pastureland share#Verb|shared by other crofters.

   Synonyms: 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: Printed [by Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, OCLC 927360557 ↗, 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.

• Italian: podere, campicello, campetto

croft (crofts, present participle crofting; past and past participle crofted)

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

croft (plural crofts) (archaic)

1. An underground#Adjective|underground chamber; a crypt, an undercroft.
2. A cave or cavern.

croft (plural crofts)

1. (archaic) A carafe.

1. Surname, from the common noun croft, and from places named Croft.