Meaning & use
farm
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Meanings
nouncountable
An area of land with buildings, used to grow crops or raise animals.
Grammar: Countable: a dairy farm, several farms. In British English a farm includes its farmhouse.
Patterns
- on a farm
- work on a farm
My grandparents run a dairy farm in Wisconsin.
We spent the weekend at a farm where children can feed the animals.
The farm has been in her family for four generations.
nouncountable
A place where a particular thing is raised or produced in large amounts.
Grammar: Used after a modifier: a fish farm, a wind farm, a server farm.
Patterns
- a farm for something
The coast has several fish farms.
A large wind farm was built on the hills.
The company stores its data in a server farm in Iowa.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To grow crops or keep animals on land as a living or business.
Grammar: With an object (farm sheep, farm the land) or without (he farms in Ohio).
Patterns
- farm something
- farm for a living
Her family has farmed this valley for generations.
They farm about two hundred acres of wheat.
He plans to farm organically.
verbphrasal verbinformal
To pass work or responsibility to others, usually outside your own organization.
Grammar: Almost always with out: farm something out to someone.
Patterns
- farm something out to someone
The agency farmed the translation out to freelancers.
Busy lawyers often farm out routine paperwork.
Word forms
| plural | farms |
|---|---|
| third person singular | farms |
| past tense | farmed |
| -ing form | farming |
Common combinations
- dairy farm
- The dairy farm sells milk to a local cheesemaker.
- organic farm
- We buy vegetables from an organic farm nearby.
- farm animals
- Children love seeing the farm animals.
- run a farm
- She runs a small farm with her brother.
- farm out work
- The studio farms out some animation work.
- farm the land
- They have farmed the land since the 1950s.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ranch
- A ranch is a large farm in the western United States or Australia used chiefly for raising cattle or horses.
- plantation
- A plantation is a large estate growing one crop such as tea or rubber, and the word often has historical associations.
- homestead
- A homestead is a farm and its house considered as a family home, especially a pioneer one.
- cultivate
- Cultivate is a more formal verb and means preparing and working land or plants, while farm covers the whole business.
Word family
Commonly confused: farm or firm? farm or farce?
farm vs firm
Firm is a business or an adjective meaning hard or steady, and it is not a place for growing crops.
farm vs farce
A farce is a silly comedy or a ridiculous situation, which has no connection with farming despite a similar spelling.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrasal verb farm out correctly?
Choose one answer.
Farm out means to give work to someone else, and it takes an object with to. The other options use the wrong meaning or the wrong particle.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “farm”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.