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farming

 - 5 dictionary results

farm⋅ing

[fahr-ming]
–noun
1. the business of operating a farm.
2. the practice of letting or leasing taxes, revenue, etc., for collection.

Origin:
1545–55; farm + -ing 1

farm

[fahrm]
–noun
1. a tract of land, usually with a house, barn, silo, etc., on which crops and often livestock are raised for livelihood.
2. land or water devoted to the raising of animals, fish, plants, etc.: a pig farm; an oyster farm; a tree farm.
3. a similar, usually commercial, site where a product is manufactured or cultivated: a cheese farm; a honey farm.
4. the system, method, or act of collecting revenue by leasing a territory in districts.
5. a country or district leased for the collection of revenue.
6. a fixed yearly amount accepted from a person in view of local or district taxes that he or she is authorized to collect.
7. a tract of land on which an industrial function is carried out, as the drilling or storage of oil or the generation of electricity by solar power.
8. English History.
a. the rent or income from leased property.
b. the condition of being leased at a fixed rent; possession under lease; a lease.
9. Also called farm team, farm club. Chiefly Baseball. a team in a minor league that is owned by or affiliated with a major-league team, for training or keeping players until ready or needed.
10. Obsolete. a fixed yearly amount payable in the form of rent, taxes, or the like.
–verb (used with object)
11. to cultivate (land).
12. to take the proceeds or profits of (a tax, undertaking, etc.) on paying a fixed sum.
13. to let or lease (taxes, revenues, an enterprise, etc.) to another for a fixed sum or a percentage (often fol. by out).
14. to let or lease the labor or services of (a person) for hire.
15. to contract for the maintenance of (a person, institution, etc.): a county that farms its poor.
–verb (used without object)
16. to cultivate the soil; operate a farm.
17. farm out,
a. to assign (work, privileges, or the like) to another by financial agreement; subcontract; lease: The busy shipyard farmed out two construction jobs to a smaller yard.
b. to assign the care of (a child or dependent person) to another: She farms her elderly aunt out to a retired nurse during the workweek.
c. Chiefly Baseball. to assign (a player) to a farm.
d. to exhaust (farmland) by overcropping.
e. to drill (oil or gas wells), esp. by subcontract on land owned or leased by another.
18. buy the farm, Slang. to die or be killed.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME ferme lease, rented land, rent < AF, OF < VL *ferma, deriv. of *fermāre, for L firmāre to make firm, confirm. See firm 1


farm⋅a⋅ble, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To farming
farm   (färm)   
n.  
  1. A tract of land cultivated for the purpose of agricultural production.

    1. A tract of land devoted to the raising and breeding of domestic animals.

    2. An area of water devoted to the raising, breeding, or production of a specific aquatic animal: a trout farm; an oyster farm.

    3. The system of leasing out the rights of collecting and retaining taxes in a certain district.

    4. A district so leased.

  2. An area of land devoted to the storage of a commodity or the emplacement of a group of devices: a tank farm; an antenna farm.

  3. Baseball A minor-league club affiliated with a major-league club for the training of recruits and the maintenance of temporarily unneeded players.

  4. Obsolete

    1. The system of leasing out the rights of collecting and retaining taxes in a certain district.

    2. A district so leased.

v.   farmed, farm·ing, farms

v.   tr.
  1. To cultivate or produce a crop on.

  2. To pay a fixed sum in order to have the right to collect and retain profits from (a business, for example).

  3. To turn over (a business, for example) to another in return for the payment of a fixed sum.

v.   intr.
To engage in farming.
Phrasal Verb(s):
farm out
  1. To send (work, for example) from a central point to be done elsewhere.

  2. Baseball To assign (a player) to a minor-league team.


[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.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Computing Dictionary

farming jargon
(From Adelaide University, Australia) What the heads of a disk drive are said to do when they plow little furrows in the magnetic media during a head crash. Typically used as follows: "Oh no, the machine has just crashed; I hope the hard drive hasn't gone farming again."
[The Jargon File]
(2001-03-26)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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Encyclopedia

farming

the active production of useful plants or animals in ecosystems that have been created by people. Agriculture has often been conceptualized narrowly, in terms of specific combinations of activities and organisms-wet-rice production in Asia, wheat farming in Europe, cattle ranching in the Americas, and the like-but a more holistic perspective holds that humans are environmental engineers who disrupt terrestrial habitats in specific ways. Anthropogenic disruptions such as clearing vegetation or tilling the soil cause a variety of localized changes; common effects include an increase in the amount of light reaching ground level and a reduction in the competition among organisms. As a result, an area may produce more of the plants or animals that people desire for food, technology, medicine, and other uses.

Learn more about farming with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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