Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A tract of land cultivated for the purpose of agricultural production.
  • noun A tract of land devoted to the raising and breeding of domestic animals.
  • noun An area of water devoted to the raising, breeding, or production of a specific aquatic animal.
  • noun A facility for the generation of energy by converting it from a particular source, usually by means of multiple electric generators.
  • noun A place where a group of similar devices or storage containers are set up.
  • noun Baseball A minor-league club affiliated with a major-league club for the training of recruits and the maintenance of temporarily unneeded players.
  • noun The system of leasing out the rights of collecting and retaining taxes in a certain district.
  • noun A district so leased.
  • intransitive verb To cultivate or produce a crop on (land).
  • intransitive verb To cultivate, breed, or raise (plants or animals).
  • intransitive verb To pay a fixed sum in order to have the right to collect and retain profits from (a business, for example).
  • intransitive verb To turn over (a business, for example) to another in return for the payment of a fixed sum.
  • intransitive verb To engage in farming.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To lease, as land, at a stated rent; give a lease of, as land; let to a tenant on condition of paying rent: as, to farm a manor.
  • Specifically To lease or let (taxes, imposts, or other duties) for a term at a stated rental: generally with out.
  • To take at a certain rent or rate; take a lease of; pay a stated sum or percentage for the use, collection, etc., of.
  • To cultivate, as land; till and plant.
  • To be employed in agriculture; cultivate the soil.
  • To cleanse or empty.
  • noun Food; a meal.
  • noun In old English use, the revenue or rent from lands under lease; revenue, rent, or income in general, but originally chiefly in the form of natural products.
  • noun The state of land leased on rent reserved; a lease; possession under lease: as, in law, to farm let, or let to farm.
  • noun The system, method, or act of collecting revenue by letting out a territory in districts.
  • noun A country or district let out for the collection of revenue.
  • noun A tract of land devoted to general or special cultivation under a single control, whether that of its owner or of a tenant: as, a small farm; a wheat-, fruit-, dairy-, or market-farm.
  • noun A farm-house; a grange; a granary.
  • noun A dwelling; a habitation; a lodging.
  • noun A farm or portion of a farm nearest to or surrounding the home.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To engage in the business of tilling the soil; to labor as a farmer.
  • transitive verb To lease or let for an equivalent, as land for a rent; to yield the use of to proceeds.
  • transitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb To take at a certain rent or rate.
  • transitive verb To devote (land) to agriculture; to cultivate, as land; to till, as a farm.
  • transitive verb to lease on rent.
  • noun obsolete The rent of land, -- originally paid by reservation of part of its products.
  • noun obsolete The term or tenure of a lease of land for cultivation; a leasehold.
  • noun The land held under lease and by payment of rent for the purpose of cultivation.
  • noun Any tract of land devoted to agricultural purposes, under the management of a tenant or the owner.
  • noun A district of country leased (or farmed) out for the collection of the revenues of government.
  • noun (O. Eng. Law) A lease of the imposts on particular goods.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete Food; provisions; a meal
  • noun obsolete A banquet; feast
  • noun obsolete A fixed yearly amount (food, provisions, money, etc.) payable as rent or tax
  • noun historical 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.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, lease, leased property, from Old French ferme, from Medieval Latin firma, fixed payment, from Latin firmāre, to establish, from firmus, firm; see dher- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English ferme, farme ("rent, revenue, produce, factor, stewardship, meal, feast"), from Old English feorm, fearm, farm ("provision, food, supplies, provisions supplied by a tenant or vassal to his lord, rent, possessions, stores, feast, entertainment, haven") (whence also Medieval Latin ferma, firma), from Proto-Germanic *fermō (“means of living, subsistence”), from Proto-Germanic *ferhwō, *ferhuz (“life force, body, being”), from Proto-Indo-European *perkʷ- (“life, force, strength, tree”). Cognate with Scots ferm ("rent, farm"). Related also to Old English feorh ("life, spirit"), German Ferch ("life, blood"), Icelandic fjör ("life, vitality, vigour, animation"), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐍂𐍈𐌿𐍃 (fairƕus, "the world"). Compare also Old English feormehām ("farm"), feormere ("purveyor, grocer").

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