a person who farms; person who operates a farm or cultivates land.
Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. an unsophisticated or ignorant person, especially one from a rural area.
Archaic. a person who undertakes some service, as the care of children or poor people, at a fixed price.
Archaic. a person who undertakes the collection of taxes, duties, etc., paying a fixed sum for the privilege of retaining them.
Cards.
a variety of twenty-one played with a 45-card pack, the object being to obtain cards having a total worth of 16.
the dealer in this game.
Fannie (Merritt) 1857–1915, U.S. authority on cooking.
James (Leonard), 1920–1999, U.S. civil rights leader; founder of CORE.
a person who operates or manages a farm
a person who obtains the right to collect and retain a tax, rent, etc, or operate a franchise for a specified period on payment of a fee
a person who looks after a child for a fixed sum
The word farmer has been used as a derogatory term for an ignorant or unsophisticated person, especially one from a rural area (whether an actual farmer or not), since the 1800's. A couple of citations illustrate this. One early example is found in Artie by George Ade (1896): “I may be a farmer, but it takes better people than you to sling the bull con into me,” uttered by the title character Artie, who is a young office worker and not a farmer. A book review in The Guardian (August 21, 2001) shows a more recent use: “I worked in a couple of those bars where you hustle champagne. They were businessmen, they weren't naive farmers.”
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English fermer, fermour, from Anglo-French, Old French fermier “collector of revenue,” from Medieval Latin firmārius “one who holds lands or tenement for a fixed number of years or for life”; see origin at farm, -er 2
A farmer is a person who runs and works on a farm. Some farmers raise a variety of food crops, while others keep dairy cows and sell their milk. Farmers work in some aspect of agriculture, growing vegetables, grains, or fruit; or raising animals for milk, eggs, or meat. A small farmer manages a relatively small piece of land, often growing different crops and keeping hens for their eggs, for example. Some farmers own their farms, while others rent the land on which they work. In the 14th century, a farmer was "one who collects taxes," from the Old French fermier, "lease holder."
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Eli Cook, a 47-year-old farmer who runs Spring Valley Farm & Orchard in West Virginia, has been selling fresh produce at markets since he was 12.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
The other was the son of a farmer who mortgaged his future for his child's education.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
“Then when there’s a problem, they realize they’d rather buy their food from a farmer they know and trust.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
"The fire was too strong, and the wind was too strong. There was nothing you could do, only watch the fire," said Minas Tsotdanis, a farmer from the village of Aspra Chomata near Porto Germeno.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
There were many quarrels among people who didn't get along with one another, and there was an interesting case, a dispute between a tailor and a farmer.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
Farmer Conor McVeigh believes the skin test for bTB "is completely out of date".
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
“The circumstances are different between the two states,” said David Farmer, a Maine-based Democratic strategist, “but it’s certainly shaping up to be a strange midterm election with enormous stakes for the country.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Party wings are another reliable crowd-pleaser: Farmer Focus wings come pre-split, grill quickly and only need a coating of Tabañero BBQ sauce near the end so it can caramelize and get sticky.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026
While meeting with Fifth Third employees in the Cincinnati area, Farmer has been repeatedly asked if he likes Cincinnati chili – and if so, how he likes it prepared.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
This always happened when I was traveling with Farmer in the countryside: one chair for Doktè Paul and one for his blan.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
The Guardian reports on farmers who say that the UK is facing food shortages due to drought.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
It is building a pilot facility in Yuma, Ariz., and is collaborating with farmers and technical experts in Arizona, California and elsewhere to further evaluate hesperaloe’s viability as a commercial crop.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
At the D.C. farmers market, produce prices are many times higher than what supermarkets charge a few blocks away.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
The cost of dealing with the disease is expected to exceed £70m this year, the bulk of it in compensation to farmers.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
Government officials in Port-au-Prince told the peasants that their pigs would be replaced with pigs purchased in the United States, from Iowa farmers.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
