farm
farm
noun
/fɑːm/
1 an area of land, and the buildings on it, used for growing crops and/or keeping animals
a 200-hectare farm
a dairy farm
an organic farm
a pig/sheep/poultry farm
He runs the farm on his own.
on a farm to live on a farm
She works on the family farm.
at a farm At harvest time they helped out at the farm.
a farm worker/labourer
farm animals
farm buildings/machinery
farm income/subsidies
(North American English) a farm family
Collocations Farming
TOPICS Farming A1
Collocations
adjective
big
large
little
verb + farm
have
own
manage
farm + verb
be located
lie
grow something
farm + noun
produce
product
animal
preposition
at a/​the farm
down on the farm
on a/​the farm
2 ​(also farmhouse) the main house on a farm, where the farmer lives
TOPICS Houses and homes B1
TOPICS Buildings B1
TOPICS Farming B1
3 (especially in compounds) a place where particular fish or animals are kept in order to produce young
a trout/mink farm
SEE ALSO battery farm, collective farm, dairy, factory farm, fish farm, funny farm, health farm, server farm, sewage farm, solar farm, troll farm, truck farm, wind farm, wine farm
Idioms
bet the farm/ranch on something
buy back the farm
buy the farm
sell off the farm
farm
verb (farms, farmed, farmed, farming)
/fɑːm/
1 intransitive, transitive to use land for growing crops and/or keeping animals
The family has farmed in Kent for over two hundred years.
farm something
They farm dairy cattle.
He farmed 200 acres of prime arable land.
They only buy organically farmed produce.
Collocations
adverb
heavily
intensively
organically
2 ​transitive farm something to keep fish or birds in order to produce young and sell them for food
Salmon are farmed in net pens near coasts.
Ostriches are farmed in South Africa and Australia.
farmed salmon/trout
Phrasal Verbs
farm out
farm out to
Word 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 firm (noun). The noun originally denoted a fixed annual amount payable as rent or tax; which later gave rise to ‘to subcontract’ (farm somebody/​something out to somebody. ). The noun came to denote ‘a lease’, and, in the early 16th cent., ‘land leased for farming’.