farm

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A place where agricultural and similar activities take place, especially the growing of crops or the raising of livestock.
  2. A tract of land held on lease for the purpose of cultivation.
  3. A location used for an industrial purpose, having many similar structures.
  4. A group of coordinated servers.
  5. Food; provisions; a meal.
  6. A banquet; feast.
  7. A fixed yearly amount (food, provisions, money, etc.) payable as rent or tax.
  8. A fixed yearly sum accepted from a person as a composition for taxes or other moneys which he is empowered to collect; also, a fixed charge imposed on a town, county, etc., in respect of a tax or taxes to be collected within its limits.
  9. The letting-out of public revenue to a ‘farmer’; the privilege of farming a tax or taxes.
  10. The body of farmers of public revenues.
  11. The condition of being let at a fixed rent; lease; a lease.
  12. A baby farm.
verb
  1. To work on a farm, especially in the growing and harvesting of crops.
  2. To devote (land) to farming.
  3. To grow (a particular crop).
  4. To give up to another, as an estate, a business, the revenue, etc., on condition of receiving in return a percentage of what it yields; to farm out.
  5. To lease or let for an equivalent, e.g. land for a rent; to yield the use of to proceeds.
  6. To take at a certain rent or rate.
  7. To engage in grinding (repetitive activity) in a particular area or against specific enemies for a particular drop or item.
  8. To cultivate and/or disseminate through artificial algorithm-incentivized means.
  9. To act performatively or deliberately to elicit a desired response.
verb
  1. To cleanse; clean out; put in order; empty; empty out
name
  1. Broadwater Farm, an area of Tottenham, North London, England.

Pronunciation

/fɑːm/ färm /fɑɹm/ En-us-farm.ogg

Word forms

farm farms feorm farming farmed the Farm

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English ferme, farme (“rent, revenue, produce, factor, stewardship, meal, feast”), influenced by Anglo-Norman ferme (“rent, lease, farm”), from Medieval Latin ferma, firma. There is debate as to whether Medieval Latin acquired this term from Old English feorm (“rent, provision, supplies, feast”), from Proto-Germanic *fermō, *firhuma- (“means of living, subsistence”), from Proto-Germanic *ferhwō (“life force, body, being”), from Proto-Indo-European *perkʷ- (“life, force, strength, tree”); or from Latin firmus (“solid, secure”), from Proto-Italic *fermos, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer-mo-s (“holding”), from the root *dʰer- (“to hold”). If the former etymology is correct, the term is related to Old English feorh (“life, spirit”), Icelandic fjör (“life, vitality, vigour, animation”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐍂𐍈𐌿𐍃 (fairƕus, “the world”). Compare also Old English feormehām (“farm”), feormere (“purveyor, supplier, grocer”). Cognate with Scots ferm (“rent, farm”).

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.