- a person who operates or manages a farm
- a person who obtains the right to collect and retain a tax, rent, etc, or operate a franchise for a specified period on payment of a fee
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
farm•er
(fär′mər),USA pronunciation n.
farm′er•like′, adj.
Far•mer (fär′mər),USA pronunciation n.
- Agriculturea person who farms;
person who operates a farm or cultivates land. - an unsophisticated person from a rural area;
yokel. - a person who undertakes some service, as the care of children or the poor, at a fixed price.
- a person who undertakes the collection of taxes, duties, etc., paying a fixed sum for the privilege of retaining them.
- [Cards.]
- a variety of twenty-one played with a 45-card pack, the object being to obtain cards having a total worth of 16.
- the dealer in this game.
- Anglo-French; Old French fermier collector of revenue. See farm, -er2
- Middle English fermer 1350–1400
Far•mer (fär′mər),USA pronunciation n.
- Biographical James (Leonard), born 1920, U.S. civil-rights leader.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
farmer /ˈfɑːmə/ n
farm /fɑrm/USA pronunciation n. [countable]
v.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- Agriculturea tract of land, usually with a house, barn, silo, etc., on which crops and often live animals are raised.
- Agricultureland or water devoted to the raising of animals, fish, plants, etc.
v.
- to cultivate land or soil to grow things: [no object]The peasants have been farming on this land for many generations.[~ + object]peasants farming the land.
- farm out, [~ + out + object]
- to assign or send out (work) to another, esp. to a smaller business:The company would farm out its smaller projects to reduce the time its own employees spent on minor work.
farm
(färm),USA pronunciation n.
v.t.
v.i.
farm′a•ble, adj.
- Agriculturea tract of land, usually with a house, barn, silo, etc., on which crops and often livestock are raised for livelihood.
- Agricultureland or water devoted to the raising of animals, fish, plants, etc.:a pig farm;an oyster farm;a tree farm.
- a similar, usually commercial, site where a product is manufactured or cultivated:a cheese farm; a honey farm.
- the system, method, or act of collecting revenue by leasing a territory in districts.
- a country or district leased for the collection of revenue.
- a fixed yearly amount accepted from a person in view of local or district taxes that he or she is authorized to collect.
- a tract of land on which an industrial function is carried out, as the drilling or storage of oil or the generation of electricity by solar power.
- World History[Eng. Hist.]
- the rent or income from leased property.
- the condition of being leased at a fixed rent;
possession under lease;
a lease.
- SportAlso called farm team, farm′ club′. [Chiefly Baseball.]a team in a minor league that is owned by or affiliated with a major-league team, for training or keeping players until ready or needed.
- [Obs.]a fixed yearly amount payable in the form of rent, taxes, or the like.
- buy the farm, [Slang.]to die or be killed.
v.t.
- to cultivate (land).
- to take the proceeds or profits of (a tax, undertaking, etc.) on paying a fixed sum.
- to let or lease (taxes, revenues, an enterprise, etc.) to another for a fixed sum or a percentage (often fol. by out).
- to let or lease the labor or services of (a person) for hire.
- to contract for the maintenance of (a person, institution, etc.):a county that farms its poor.
v.i.
- Agricultureto cultivate the soil;
operate a farm. - farm out:
- to assign (work, privileges, or the like) to another by financial agreement;
subcontract;
lease:The busy shipyard farmed out two construction jobs to a smaller yard. - to assign the care of (a child or dependent person) to another:She farms her elderly aunt out to a retired nurse during the workweek.
- Sport[Chiefly Baseball.]to assign (a player) to a farm.
- to exhaust (farmland) by overcropping.
- to drill (oil or gas wells), esp. by subcontract on land owned or leased by another.
- to assign (work, privileges, or the like) to another by financial agreement;
- Vulgar Latin *ferma, derivative of *fermāre, for Latin firmāre to make firm, confirm. See firm1
- Anglo-French, Old French
- Middle English ferme lease, rented land, rent 1250–1300
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
Farmer /ˈfɑːmə/ n
- John. ?1565–1605, English madrigal composer and organist
'farmer' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
agterskot
- boor
- build
- cap
- cocky
- cockatoo
- cow cocky
- farmer's lung
- gentleman-farmer
- grazier
- habitant
- husbandman
- McIntosh
- poultryman
- put
- sharecropper
- sharefarmer
- squatter
- stubble-jumper
- subsistence farming
- tank farming
- tenant farmer
- truck farm
- voorskot
- agriculturist
- Boer
- borecole
- boss cocky
- bucolic
- butter-and-egg man
- campesino
- colon
- colonus
- cottage cheese
- countryman
- Dallis grass
- dirt farm
- dirtfarmer
- -ette
- farmer cheese
- farmerette
- farmer-general
- farmer in the dell
- Farmer-Labor party
- Farmer's reducer
- farmhouse
- Future Farmer
- George
- goodman
- grange