homestead
1 Americannoun
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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.
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any dwelling with its land and buildings where a family makes its home.
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a tract of land acquired under the Homestead Act.
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a house in an urban area acquired under a homesteading program.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
noun
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a house or estate and the adjoining land, buildings, etc, esp a farm
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(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
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(in western Canada) a piece of land, usually 160 acres, granted to a settler by the federal government
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the owner's or manager's residence on a sheep or cattle station; in New Zealand the term includes all outbuildings
Etymology
Origin of homestead
First recorded before 1000; Old English hāmstede; equivalent to home + stead
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After randomly plucking an abandoned homestead site off a real estate map, she heads to Big Sandy, Mont., a folksy small town where residents admirably offer her support for survival under forbidding conditions.
From Washington Post
He spent much of the time at his homestead with other family members who gathered there.
From Seattle Times
The line refers to Section 14, a working-class neighborhood of homesteads and shacks that once sat on land owned by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in the city center.
From Los Angeles Times
It affirmed lower court decisions that the truck was a home, and said that auctioning it off would have violated the state’s frontier-era homestead act that forbids the state from forcibly selling someone’s home.
From Seattle Times
Marshals detected Reinbold on Tuesday night, and authorities found him hiding in the woods near an abandoned homestead.
From Fox News
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.
