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.
We drove 6½ hours to the mountains of Southwest Virginia to visit my mom’s remote homestead on Ramsey’s Ridge.
The painting showed an old man in cracked spectacles standing beside a lame horse, in the midst of a homestead that had burned to the ground, so that only the smoking ruins remained.
From Literature
By chance, lawyers in the Department of Justice learned that a part of my recently completed doctoral dissertation in Indian history included a discussion of such “homestead laws.”
From Salon
“More importantly, the state has complex laws about community property, homestead exemptions, and tax implications that can dramatically affect how your assets pass to your heirs.”
From MarketWatch
Odinga was buried nearby at his late father's homestead, where there is a family mausoleum.
From BBC
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.
