land grant

American  

noun

1. a tract of land given by the government, as for colleges or railroads.

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land grant British  

noun

1. a grant of public land to a college, railway, etc

2. (modifier) designating a state university established with such a grant

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Etymology

Origin of land grant

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

Bennet Evans Tarlow III was the great-great-grandson of the man who carved out and developed much of this area from an 18th-century Spanish land grant.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025

Marquez’s byzantine effort to preserve the family cemetery, closely covered by The Times, centered on property within the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, a land grant given to Francisco Marquez and Ysidro Reyes in 1839.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 12, 2024

Pam Doiron lives in the western part of the valley on a cattle ranch called the Spanish Ranch, which was once part of a Mexican land grant dating to 1843.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 13, 2023

Several members of Congress on Wednesday called on states to address gaps in their funding for schools in the land grant university system that shortchange historically Black colleges and universities.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 24, 2022

The colony had first settled there under a land grant from the Mexican government, and the man who led the colonization was a priest, and he was a Luna.

From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya