a person who farms; person who operates a farm or cultivates land.
Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. an unsophisticated or ignorant person, especially one from a rural area.
Archaic. a person who undertakes some service, as the care of children or poor people, at a fixed price.
Archaic. a person who undertakes the collection of taxes, duties, etc., paying a fixed sum for the privilege of retaining them.
Cards.
a variety of twenty-one played with a 45-card pack, the object being to obtain cards having a total worth of 16.
the dealer in this game.
Fannie (Merritt) 1857–1915, U.S. authority on cooking.
James (Leonard), 1920–1999, U.S. civil rights leader; founder of CORE.
a person who operates or manages a farm
a person who obtains the right to collect and retain a tax, rent, etc, or operate a franchise for a specified period on payment of a fee
a person who looks after a child for a fixed sum
The word farmer has been used as a derogatory term for an ignorant or unsophisticated person, especially one from a rural area (whether an actual farmer or not), since the 1800's. A couple of citations illustrate this. One early example is found in Artie by George Ade (1896): “I may be a farmer, but it takes better people than you to sling the bull con into me,” uttered by the title character Artie, who is a young office worker and not a farmer. A book review in The Guardian (August 21, 2001) shows a more recent use: “I worked in a couple of those bars where you hustle champagne. They were businessmen, they weren't naive farmers.”
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English fermer, fermour, from Anglo-French, Old French fermier “collector of revenue,” from Medieval Latin firmārius “one who holds lands or tenement for a fixed number of years or for life”; see origin at farm, -er 2
A farmer is a person who runs and works on a farm. Some farmers raise a variety of food crops, while others keep dairy cows and sell their milk. Farmers work in some aspect of agriculture, growing vegetables, grains, or fruit; or raising animals for milk, eggs, or meat. A small farmer manages a relatively small piece of land, often growing different crops and keeping hens for their eggs, for example. Some farmers own their farms, while others rent the land on which they work. In the 14th century, a farmer was "one who collects taxes," from the Old French fermier, "lease holder."
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They are happening in a county supervisors’ meeting, where a farmer worried about a transmission easement and a planning board member worried about re-election decide whether a project gets built.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 22, 2026
McAfee, a third-generation California farmer, was born into a family that had charted an unconventional course.
From Salon • Jun. 22, 2026
Meanwhile, community meetings about data centers are growing contentious, with police arresting a farmer in Oklahoma, three women in Wisconsin and a man in California.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 21, 2026
Neetu, a 28-year-old farmer, said she used the product on her pearl millet crop and cut urea application by about one-third without affecting yields.
From Barron's • Jun. 16, 2026
Despite a traumatic childhood and a mother who wanted him to become a farmer, Newton enrolled in Cambridge in the 1660s—and flourished.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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.
