land grant

American  

noun

1. a tract of land given by the government, as for colleges or railroads.

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land grant British  

noun

1. a grant of public land to a college, railway, etc

2. (modifier) designating a state university established with such a grant

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Etymology

Origin of land grant

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

Bennet Evans Tarlow III was the great-great-grandson of the man who carved out and developed much of this area from an 18th-century Spanish land grant.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025

We applaud her leadership and look forward to working with the federal government and other land grant institutions to ensure this critical infrastructure funding is included in the upcoming Farm Bill reauthorization.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 10, 2023

On his mother’s side, his family stretches back to some of the earliest land grant families in Santa Barbara, and his maternal grandfather, Alexander Harmer, was a well-known painter of Western scenes.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 14, 2022

The Dahle family established roots in California during the Great Depression when his grandfather, a World War I veteran, was awarded an 80-acre land grant in Tulelake, just south of the Oregon border.

From Los Angeles Times • May 16, 2022

“Maybe, I don’t know. I think he had a land grant for fightin’ in the Revolution.”

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns