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Definition of farm verb from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

farm

verb
 
/fɑːm/
 
/fɑːrm/
Verb Forms
present simple I / you / we / they farm
 
/fɑːm/
 
/fɑːrm/
he / she / it farms
 
/fɑːmz/
 
/fɑːrmz/
past simple farmed
 
/fɑːmd/
 
/fɑːrmd/
past participle farmed
 
/fɑːmd/
 
/fɑːrmd/
-ing form farming
 
/ˈfɑːmɪŋ/
 
/ˈfɑːrmɪŋ/
Phrasal Verbs
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  1. [intransitive, transitive] to use land for growing crops and/or keeping animals
    • The family has farmed in Kent for over two hundred years.
    • farm something They farm dairy cattle.
    • He farmed 200 acres of prime arable land.
    • They only buy organically farmed produce.
    Extra Examples
    • The land has been intensively farmed.
    • They farm organically now.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb
    • heavily
    • intensively
    • organically
    See full entry
  2. [transitive] farm something to keep fish or birds in order to produce young and sell them for food
    • Salmon are farmed in net pens near coasts.
    • Ostriches are farmed in South Africa and Australia.
    • farmed salmon/trout
  3. Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French ferme, from medieval Latin firma ‘fixed payment’, from Latin firmare ‘fix, settle’ (in medieval Latin ‘contract for’), from firmus ‘constant, firm’; compare with firm (noun). The noun originally denoted a fixed annual amount payable as rent or tax; which later gave rise to ‘to subcontract’ (farm somebody/​something out to somebody. ). The verb sense ‘grow crops or keep livestock’ dates from the early 19th cent.
See farm in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee farm in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
trait
noun
 
 
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