farmer

[ fahr-mer ]
See synonyms for farmer on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a person who farms; person who operates a farm or cultivates land.

  2. Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. an unsophisticated or ignorant person, especially one from a rural area.

  1. Archaic. a person who undertakes some service, as the care of children or poor people, at a fixed price.

  2. Archaic. a person who undertakes the collection of taxes, duties, etc., paying a fixed sum for the privilege of retaining them.

  3. 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.

Origin of farmer

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English fermer, fermour, from Anglo-French, Old French fermier “collector of revenue,” from Medieval Latin firmārius “one who holds lands or tenement for a fixed number of years or for life”; see origin at farm, -er2

usage note For farmer

The word farmer has been used as a derogatory term for an ignorant or unsophisticated person, especially one from a rural area (whether an actual farmer or not), since the 1800's. A couple of citations illustrate this. One early example is found in Artie by George Ade (1896): “I may be a farmer, but it takes better people than you to sling the bull con into me,” uttered by the title character Artie, who is a young office worker and not a farmer. A book review in The Guardian (August 21, 2001) shows a more recent use: “I worked in a couple of those bars where you hustle champagne. They were businessmen, they weren't naive farmers.”

Other words from farmer

  • farm·er·like, adjective
  • pro·farm·er, adjective
  • un·der·farm·er, noun

Other definitions for Farmer (2 of 2)

Farmer
[ fahr-mer ]

noun
  1. Fannie (Mer·ritt) [mer-it], /ˈmɛr ɪt/, 1857–1915, U.S. authority on cooking.

  2. James (Leonard), 1920–1999, U.S. civil rights leader; founder of CORE.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use farmer in a sentence

  • He annually has a gathering of distinguished farmers and others to inspect his estate and see how his "book farming" gets on.

    Glances at Europe | Horace Greeley
  • In and around where they now sat, there was quite a settlement of Negroes, mostly small farmers.

    The Homesteader | Oscar Micheaux
  • His horticultural writings were exceedingly beneficial, as well to the gardeners as farmers.

  • Most of the farmers wore linen dusters and broad straw hats, but their women had put on all their finery.

    Ancestors | Gertrude Atherton
  • Farmers often lose their entire stock of plants, and are forced to send miles to beg or buy of a more fortunate planter.

British Dictionary definitions for farmer (1 of 2)

farmer

/ (ˈfɑːmə) /


noun
  1. a person who operates or manages a farm

  2. 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

  1. a person who looks after a child for a fixed sum

British Dictionary definitions for Farmer (2 of 2)

Farmer

/ (ˈfɑːmə) /


noun
  1. John. ?1565–1605, English madrigal composer and organist

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012