farm out

verb

1. to send (work) to be done by another person, firm, etc; subcontract
2. to put (a child, etc) into the care of a private individual; foster
3. to lease to another for a rent or fee the right to operate (a business for profit, land, etc) or the right to collect (taxes)

Idioms and Phrases

Assign something to an outsider; subcontract something. For example, The contractor was so busy he had to farm out two jobs to a colleague , or When their mother was hospitalized, the children had to be farmed out to the nearest relatives . This term originally referred to letting or leasing land. Today it usually refers to subcontracting work or the care of a dependent to another. In baseball it means “to assign a player to a lesser ( farm ) league,” as opposed to a big league . [Mid-1600s]

Example Sentences

Father Frank assigns Rule to locate the three children she kidnapped—now grown men—whom she helped farm out into adoption.

From The Daily Beast

When I first saw you on your father's farm out in Kansas, you was as wild a little gypsy as I ever set eyes on.

From Project Gutenberg

Grandfather and his boys, four in all, fairly carved a farm out of the big forest that covered the cold rocky hills.

From Project Gutenberg

A few decades ago as many as fifty laborers engaged for the harvest had to be housed in the farm out-houses on beds of straw.

From Project Gutenberg

I have bought a farm out there and I don't care if I again earn only twenty-five cents a day.

From Project Gutenberg

Ten of these men I have quietly called to meet at my farm out here a few miles from town, on Thursday night.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• hire out
• rent out
• subcontract
• sublet