- Farm
- Farm Farm, n. [OE. ferme rent, lease, F. ferme, LL. firma, fr.
L. firmus firm, fast, firmare to make firm or fast. See
{Firm}, a. & n.]
1. The rent of land, -- originally paid by reservation of
part of its products. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
2. The term or tenure of a lease of land for cultivation; a leasehold. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
It is great willfulness in landlords to make any longer farms to their tenants. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
3. The land held under lease and by payment of rent for the purpose of cultivation. [1913 Webster]
4. Any tract of land devoted to agricultural purposes, under the management of a tenant or the owner. [1913 Webster]
Note: In English the ideas of a lease, a term, and a rent, continue to be in a great degree inseparable, even from the popular meaning of a farm, as they are entirely so from the legal sense. --Burrill. [1913 Webster]
5. A district of country leased (or farmed) out for the collection of the revenues of government. [1913 Webster]
The province was devided into twelve farms. --Burke. [1913 Webster]
6. (O. Eng. Law) A lease of the imposts on particular goods; as, the sugar farm, the silk farm. [1913 Webster]
Whereas G. H. held the farm of sugars upon a rent of 10,000 marks per annum. --State Trials (1196). [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.