farmer in the dell

American  

noun

1. a game, accompanied by a song with several verses, in which one person, designated as the farmer, occupies the center of a circle of persons and is joined in the circle by other players designated as wife, child, nurse, cat, rat, and cheese, these then leaving the circle in order except for the one designated as cheese, who is left standing alone in the circle at the end.

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Example Sentences

The song “Farmer in the Dell” for example, reenacts the importance of agricultural life, animal and family relationships in early 19th century Germany by having participants imitate the types of animals and family existence common in rural areas.

From Literature

They also took exception when opposing teams played “The Farmer in the Dell,” which Omar whistles in the show.

From Washington Post

Williams could take something as simple as whistling “The Farmer in the Dell” — an Omar favorite when he’s on the way to wreak havoc — and forever alter the viewer’s association with the tune.

From Washington Post

Towards the end of that term, for instance, Bunny had a maddening habit of breaking out into choruses of “The Farmer in the Dell”; I found it merely annoying and could not understand the violent agitation to which it provoked the rest of them: not knowing then, as I do now, that it must have chilled them all to the bone.

From Literature

Three times a day, they file into the milking parlor, where computer-calibrated vacuums drain several gallons of warm milk from their udders, a process that lasts about as long as a recitation of “The Farmer in the Dell.”

From New York Times