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.]
2. The term or tenure of a lease of land for cultivation; a
leasehold. [Obs.]
It is great willfulness in landlords to make any
longer farms to their tenants. --Spenser.
3. The land held under lease and by payment of rent for the
purpose of cultivation.
4. Any tract of land devoted to agricultural purposes, under
the management of a tenant or the owner.
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.
5. A district of country leased (or farmed) out for the
collection of the revenues of government.
The province was devided into twelve farms. --Burke.
6. (O. Eng. Law) A lease of the imposts on particular goods;
as, the sugar farm, the silk farm.
Whereas G. H. held the farm of sugars upon a rent of
10,000 marks per annum. --State Trials
(1196).
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) |