homestead

¹

[ hohm-sted, -stid ]

noun

1. 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.
2. any dwelling with its land and buildings where a family makes its home.
3. a tract of land acquired under the Homestead Act.
4. a house in an urban area acquired under a homesteading program.

verb (used with object)

1. to acquire or settle on (land) as a homestead:

   Pioneers homesteaded the valley.

verb (used without object)

1. to acquire or settle on a homestead:

   They homesteaded many years ago.

Homestead

²

[ hohm-sted, -stid ]

noun

1. a town in S Florida.

homestead

/ -stɪd; ˈhəʊmˌstɛd /

noun

1. a house or estate and the adjoining land, buildings, etc, esp a farm
2. (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
3. (in western Canada) a piece of land, usually 160 acres, granted to a settler by the federal government
4. the owner's or manager's residence on a sheep or cattle station; in New Zealand the term includes all outbuildings

Word History and Origins

Origin of homestead¹

First recorded before 1000; Old English hāmstede; equivalent to home + stead

Example Sentences

In fact, more than 2,000 beneficiaires have already died without receiving a homestead, the Star-Advertiser and ProPublica found.

From ProPublica

There’s been a big problem for illegal gambling and drug trafficking already with a lot of the homesteads, and I just want to prevent any more from coming in.

From ProPublica

That’s enough to supply less than a third of the so-called waitlisters with homesteads under the current single-family model, according to an analysis of department data by the Star-Advertiser and ProPublica.

From ProPublica

As the Star-Advertiser and ProPublica reported in October, DHHL is failing to award homesteads in a timely fashion, as state law requires.

From ProPublica

Usually on Thanksgiving, people drive or fly back to the old homestead to celebrate with family and friends.

From Washington Blade

There is an ancestral homestead, but it has a meth lab in the barn.

From The Daily Beast

Individual states—including the Republic of Texas, which had homesteads up to 320 acres—passed additional homestead acts.

From The Daily Beast

Private business was precisely the new capital that needed to become the new homestead.

From The Daily Beast

In The Americans, the historian Daniel Boorstin traced the madness of the farmers to the Homestead Act of 1862.

From The Daily Beast

He also enacted the Homestead Act, which supplied aspiring settlers with a gift: 160 acres of federal land.

From The Daily Beast

He took mental inventory of his possessions and what he could lay claim to, and he happened to think about his wife's homestead.

From Project Gutenberg

Syfe settled with him in cash by taking a large loan on his homestead and giving Barr the proceeds.

From Project Gutenberg

Barr had secured Kaden's homestead, and all this Jack Stewart knew, but had never disclosed.

From Project Gutenberg

The peculiarity about a homestead is, it is protected by law from seizure by the owner's creditors.

From Project Gutenberg

One of the most important questions relating to a homestead is, the meaning of the head of a family.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• apartment
• cabin
• condo
• condominium
• cottage
• dormitory
• dwelling
• farm
• hospital
• house
• hut
• mansion
• palace
• place
• residence
• resort
• shelter
• trailer