homesteader
Americannoun
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a person owning a homestead
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a person who acquires or possesses land under a homestead law
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a person taking part in a homesteading scheme
Etymology
Origin of homesteader
Explanation
Starting in the late 1860s, someone who settled on Western land was known as a homesteader. After farming it for a certain length of time, homesteaders gained ownership of the land. The term homesteader started with the Homestead Act of 1862, which encouraged independent farmers and families to claim land west of the Mississippi River. Homesteaders were granted 160 acres of land to "improve" over five years. Settlers benefitted from the law, but homesteaders pushed Native Americans out of vast areas of the West. Today, homesteader is also used for anyone who lives in a self-sufficient way, especially if they grow their own food crops.
Vocabulary lists containing homesteader
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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.
It started, LaValle told me via Zoom last month, during a trip to the University of Montana, where he bought a book: “Montana Women Homesteaders: A Field of One’s Own,” edited by Sarah Carter.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2023
Homesteaders and loggers nibbled away at the original landscape — the military can be thanked for today’s preserved old-growth — while Bowman Bay’s namesake, Dunnell Bowman, printed a socialist newspaper.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 1, 2022
Homesteaders, marauding Civil War veterans and a sinister sheriff.
From New York Times • May 2, 2018
Homesteaders were registering their claims at a federal land office in La Grande.
From Slate • May 24, 2017
Rose, her massive curls tangled on her head in a sloppy bun, shot me a look from the tent she was dismantling, having been stuck with Homesteaders.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
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.
