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farm

Pronunciation: /fɑːm/

Translate farm | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of farm

noun

  • an area of land and its buildings, used for growing crops and rearing animals: a farm of 100 acres [as modifier]:farm workers
  • a farmhouse:a half-timbered farm
  • [with modifier] a place for breeding a particular type of animal or producing a specified crop:a fish farm
  • [with modifier] a place devoted to producing or promoting something:an energy farm

verb

  • 1 [no object] make one’s living by growing crops or keeping livestock:he has farmed organically for years
  • [with object] use (land) for growing crops and rearing animals: marshes are being drained in order to farm the land
  • [with object] breed or grow (a type of livestock or crop) commercially:ostriches are farmed in South Africa and Australia (as adjective farmed)farmed salmon
  • 2 [with object] (farm someone/thing out) send out or subcontract work to others:it saves time and money to farm out some writing work to specialized companies
  • arrange for a child to be looked after by someone, usually for payment: the babies are farmed out for five years
  • dated send a sports player temporarily to another team in return for a fee: he was farmed out in 1938 and '39 and came back for two games in 1940
  • 3 [with object] historical allow someone to collect and keep the revenues from (a tax) on payment of a fee: the customs had been farmed to the collector for a fixed sum

Phrases

from farm to fork (or table)

used to refer to the various processes in the food chain from agricultural production to consumption:a catering industry initiative that allows certified traceability of fresh meat and eggs from farm to fork [as modifier]:each of these countries has farm-to-fork legislation
chiefly US used to refer to locally grown or produced food: [as modifier]:in San Francisco, farm-to-fork eating is a year-round affair

Derivatives

farmable

adjective

Origin:

Middle English: from Old French ferme, from medieval Latin firma 'fixed payment', from Latin firmare 'fix, settle' (in medieval Latin 'contract for'), from firmus 'constant, firm'; compare with firm2. The noun originally denoted a fixed annual amount payable as rent or tax; this is reflected in farm (sense 3 of the verb), which later gave rise to 'to subcontract' (farm (sense 2 of the verb)). The noun came to denote a lease, and, in the early 16th century, land leased for farming. The verb sense 'grow crops or keep livestock' dates from the early 19th century

farm in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of farm in the US English dictionary

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