homestead

¹

[hohm-sted, -stid]

noun

1. a dwelling with its land and buildings, occupied by the owner as a home and exempted by a homestead law from seizure or sale for debt.

2. any dwelling with its land and buildings where a family makes its home.

3. a tract of land acquired under the Homestead Act.

4. a house in an urban area acquired under a homesteading program.

verb (used with object)

1. to acquire or settle on (land) as a homestead.

   Pioneers homesteaded the valley.

verb (used without object)

1. to acquire or settle on a homestead.

   They homesteaded many years ago.

Homestead

²

[hohm-sted, -stid]

noun

1. a town in S Florida.

homestead

/ -stɪd, ˈhəʊmˌstɛd /

noun

1. a house or estate and the adjoining land, buildings, etc, esp a farm

2. (in the US) a house and adjoining land designated by the owner as his fixed residence and exempt under the homestead laws from seizure and forced sale for debts

3. (in western Canada) a piece of land, usually 160 acres, granted to a settler by the federal government

4. the owner's or manager's residence on a sheep or cattle station; in New Zealand the term includes all outbuildings

Word History and Origins

Origin of homestead¹

First recorded before 1000; Old English hāmstede; equivalent to home + stead

Example Sentences

Instead, she lives in a trailer on the homestead, where she feels persecuted by the blazing sun that her tree canopy used to shield her from.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Thousands of feet below, a smattering of old homesteads spread out like playing cards on a poker table.

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With formerly enslaved people striking out and settling their own homesteads, the prevailing stereotypes deployed to justify violence against Black people were forced to evolve.

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The same ancestor who founded this homestead left his own family behind in Georgia; that cold resolve is Hailey’s inheritance too.

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Part of these traditions involved refurbishing his "simba" - or bachelor's pad within his father's homestead - into a home suitable for the couple and their three-year-old son George.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• apartment 
• cabin 
• condo 
• condominium 
• cottage 
• dormitory 
• dwelling 
• farm 
• hospital 
• house 
• hut 
• mansion 
• palace 
• place 
• residence 
• resort 
• shelter 
• trailer