English

Verb

come a cropper ‎(third-person singular simple present comes a cropper, present participle coming a cropper, simple past and past participle came a cropper)

1. (archaic) To fall headlong from a horse.
2. (Britain, idiomatic) To suffer some misfortune; to fail.
   • 1879, Anthony Trollope, The Duke's Children, ch. 67:

     I should feel certain that I should come a cropper, but still I'd try it. As you say, a fellow should try.

   • 1922, Katherine Mansfield, At The Bay, :

     You couldn't help feeling he'd be caught out one day, and then what an almighty cropper he'd come!

See also

• neck and crop

References

• "Come a cropper" in Michael Quinion, Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds, 2004.