ranch

[ranch]

noun

1. an establishment maintained for raising livestock under range conditions.

2. Chiefly Western U.S. and Canada.,  a large farm used primarily to raise one kind of crop or animal.

   a mink ranch.

3. a dude ranch.

4. the persons employed or living on a ranch.

5. ranch house.

6. ranch dressing.

   I’ll have the small salad, with ranch on the side.

verb (used without object)

1. to manage or work on a ranch.

ranch

/ rɑːntʃ /

noun

1. a large tract of land, esp one in North America, together with the necessary personnel, buildings, and equipment, for rearing livestock, esp cattle

2. 1. any large farm for the rearing of a particular kind of livestock or crop

      a mink ranch

   2. the buildings, land, etc, connected with it

verb

1. (intr) to manage or run a ranch

2. (tr) to raise (animals) on or as if on a ranch

Other Word Forms

• ranchless adjective
• ranchlike adjective
• unranched adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of ranch¹

An Americanism dating from 1800–10; from Spanish rancho “farm, cattle farm, ranch”; rancho

Word History and Origins

Origin of ranch¹

C19: from Mexican Spanish rancho small farm; see _rancho

Example Sentences

“I would not be a state senator today had it not been for that woman,” said Hulse, who grew up on a hunting ranch, far from the corridors of power.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

She spent 18 months serving a Spanish-speaking mission in Salmon, Idaho, where many ranch hands were seasonal employees from Latin America.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

They employ quite a few mustangs at their guest ranch operation in the town of Bridgeport, including Jethro, a friendly brown fella with a splash of white on his forehead.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

My late grandmother, in particular, had a predictable, beloved spread: shrimp cocktail with horseradish-laced sauce; the supermarket veggie platter with ranch; crockpot meatballs simmered in barbecue sauce and grape jelly; salsa with Tostito’s scoops.

Read more on Salon

Within 150 years, both counties had heaved through boom-and-bust cycles of ranching, crops, land, oil and aerospace.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• dairy farm 
• estate 
• homestead 
• land 
• plantation