Homestead Act

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noun

a special act of Congress (1862) that made public lands in the West available to settlers without payment, usually in lots of 160 acres, to be used as farms.

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Words nearby Homestead Act

home staging, homestall, home stand, homestay, homestead, Homestead Act, homesteader, homesteading, homestead law, home straight, homestretch

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Homestead Act in a sentence

A spokesman for Lewisham council said last year that it would be forced to act if the family returned to Britain.
Britain May Spy on Preschoolers Searching for Potential Jihadis|Nico Hines|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Every once in a while, they act swiftly and acknowledge the problem.
Today’s GOP: Still Cool With Racist Pandering?|Michael Tomasky|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
That act forever sealed his feeling for the Chief, bound it up with the war, with violence, with the gun.
The Story Behind Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance Smile|Robert Ward|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The Samaritan guidelines are written around the assumption that suicide is a purely irrational act, an act spurred by illness.
Cover-Ups and Concern Trolls: Actually, It's About Ethics in Suicide Journalism|Arthur Chu|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST

But the act of killing herself done, the message was sent, and heard, and things started changing.
Cover-Ups and Concern Trolls: Actually, It's About Ethics in Suicide Journalism|Arthur Chu|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
He caught himself in the act of listening to you too credulously—and that seemed to him unmanly and dishonorable.
Confidence|Henry James
He was aware that his act by this time, had helped nobody, had made no one happy or satisfied—not even himself.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux
He had, however, recovered sufficiently to enable him to act with promptitude and discretion.
The Giant of the North|R.M. Ballantyne
This seems to be contrary to the spirit and intent of the act, which is primarily to centralize reserves in Federal Reserve Banks.
Readings in Money and Banking|Chester Arthur Phillips
The Act permits member banks to accept an amount of bills not exceeding 50 per cent.
Readings in Money and Banking|Chester Arthur Phillips

British Dictionary definitions for Homestead Act

Homestead Act

noun

an act passed by the US Congress in 1862 making available to settlers 160-acre tracts of public land for cultivation

(in Canada) a similar act passed by the Canadian Parliament in 1872

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for Homestead Act

Homestead Act

A law passed in the 1860s that offered up to 160 acres of public land to any head of a family who paid a registration fee, lived on the land for five years, and cultivated it or built on it.