FARM | English Meaning, Definition, and Pronunciation

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 firm. The noun originally denoted a fixed annual amount payable as rent or tax; this is reflected in farm (sense 2 of the verb), which later gave rise to farm out meaning ‘to subcontract’. 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

an area of land and its buildings, used for growing crops and rearing animals

place for growing crops and rearing animals

• a farm of 100 acres
• farm workers

make one's living by growing crops or keeping livestock

make living as farmer

• he has farmed organically for years

allow someone to collect and keep the revenues from (a tax) on payment of a fee

allow someone to keep revenues from tax

• the customs had been farmed to the collector for a fixed sum