• (America, Canada) enPR: färm, IPA: /fɑːɹm/
• (British) IPA: /fɑːm/

From Middle English ferme, farme, influenced by Anglo-Norman ferme, from Medieval Latin ferma, firma.

farm (plural farms)

1. A place where agricultural and similar activities take place, especially the growing of crops or the raising of livestock.
2. A tract of land held on lease for the purpose of cultivation.
3. (often, in combination) A location used for an industrial purpose, having many similar structures.

   antenna farm; fuel farm; solar farm; wind farm

4. (computing) A group of coordinated servers.

   a render farm

   a server farm

5. (obsolete) Food; provisions; a meal.
6. (obsolete) A banquet; feast.
7. (obsolete) A fixed yearly amount (food, provisions, money, etc.) payable as rent or tax.
   • 1642, J. Perkins, transl., Profitable Bk. (new ed.) xi. §751. 329:

     If a man be bounden unto 1.s. in 100.l.£ to grant unto him the rent and farme of such a Mill.

   • 1700, J. Tyrrell, Gen. Hist. Eng. II. 814:

     All..Tythings shall stand at the old Farm, without any Increase.

   • 1767, W. Blackstone, Comm. Laws Eng. II. 320:

     The most usual and customary feorm or rent..must be reserved yearly on such lease.

8. (historical) A fixed yearly sum accepted from a person as a composition for taxes or other moneys which he is empowered to collect; also, a fixed charge imposed on a town, county, etc., in respect of a tax or taxes to be collected within its limits.
   • 1876, E. A. Freeman, Hist. Norman Conquest V. xxiv. 439:

     He [the Sheriff] paid into the Exchequer the fixed yearly sum which formed the farm of the shire.

9. (historical) The letting-out of public revenue to a ‘farmer’; the privilege of farming a tax or taxes.
   • 1885, Edwards in Encycl. Brit. XIX. 580:

     The first farm of postal income was made in 1672.

10. The body of farmers of public revenues.
    • 1786, T. Jefferson, Writings (1859) I. 568:

      They despair of a suppression of the Farm.

11. The condition of being let at a fixed rent; lease; a lease.
    • a1599, Spenser, View State Ireland in J. Ware Two Hist. Ireland (1633) 58:

      It is a great willfullnes in any such Land-lord to refuse to make any longer farmes unto their Tennants.

    • 1647, N. Bacon, Hist. Disc. Govt. 75:

      Thence the Leases so made were called Feormes or Farmes, which word signifieth Victuals.

    • 1818, W. Cruise, Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. (ed. 2) IV. 68:

      The words demise, lease, and to farm let, are the proper ones to constitute a lease.

12. (historical) A baby farm.
    • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC ↗:

      Oliver’s sobs checked his utterance for some minutes; when he was on the point of beginning to relate how he had been brought up at the farm, and carried to the workhouse by Mr. Bumble, a peculiarly impatient little double-knock was heard at the street-door: and the servant, running upstairs, announced Mr. Grimwig.

• French: ferme, domaine, exploitation agricole
• German: Bauernhof, Farm
• Italian: fattoria, podere
• Portuguese: fazenda, sítio, granja, quinta
• Russian: фе́рма
• Spanish: finca, granja

From Middle English fermen, from Anglo-Norman fermer ultimately from the same Old English - source as Etymology 1.

farm (farms, present participle farming; simple past and past participle farmed)

1. (intransitive) To work on a farm, especially in the growing and harvesting of crops.
2. (transitive) To devote (land) to farming.
3. (transitive) To grow (a particular crop).
4. To give up to another, as an estate, a business, the revenue, etc., on condition of receiving in return a percentage of what it yields; to farm out.

   to farm the taxes

   • December 1, 1783, Edmund Burke, Speech on Mr. Fox's East-India Bill

     to farm their subjects and their duties toward these

5. (obsolete, transitive) To lease or let for an equivalent, e.g. land for a rent; to yield the use of to proceeds.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene iv]:

     We are enforced to farm our royal realm.

6. (obsolete, transitive) To take at a certain rent or rate.
   • 1886, The Fortnightly, volume 46, page 530:

     In Paris it is stated that nearly half the birth-rate of the city finds its way to nurses who farm babies in the suburbs.

7. (video games, chiefly, online gaming) To engage in grinding (repetitive activity) in a particular area or against specific enemies for a particular drop or item.
   • 2010, Robert Alan Brookey, Hollywood Gamers, page 130:

     The practice of gold farming is controversial within gaming communities and violates the end user licensing agreements […]

• Portuguese: cultivar

• Portuguese: cultivar, lavrar, amanhar

From Middle English fermen, from Old English feormian, from Proto-West Germanic *furbēn.

farm (farms, present participle farming; simple past and past participle farmed)

1. (UK, dialectal) To cleanse; clean out; put in order; empty; empty out

   Farm out the stable and pigsty.

1. (UK, slang) Broadwater Farm, an area of Tottenham, North London, England.
   • 2020, Jac Shreeves-Lee, Broadwater:

     And before you mention the plans to fix up the Farm, let me tell you, all that regeneration talk is just about bulldozing the place and shipping us all out to God knows where.