▪ I. farming, vbl. n.
(ˈfɑːmɪŋ)
[f. farm v.2 + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. farm.
1. The action or system of farming (out) or letting out to farm (the revenue, etc.).
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Arrendamiento, letting, ferming. 1672 Petty Pol. Anat. 360 This and other practices of farming..hath been a great trade in Ireland. 1786 Burke W. Hastings Wks. XII. 121 The farming out of the defence of a country..could have no real object but to enrich the contractor at the Company's expense. 1845 M{supc}Culloch Taxation Introd. (1852) 31 Bentham..has endeavoured to show that farming is in every case the preferable mode of collection. 1877 Dowden Shaks. Prim. vi. 88 His farming of the realm. |
2. The business of cultivating land, raising stock, etc.; agriculture, husbandry.
| 1733 W. Ellis (title), Chiltern and Vale Farming explained. 1767 A. Young Farmer's Lett. People 294 When I am told that farming answers to gentlemen..I never believe it. 1819 Edin. Rev. XXXII. 464 Capital..expended on what is called high farming. 1878 Jevons Primer Pol. Econ. 90 As agriculture becomes more a science, farming will require greater skill. |
3. attrib. and Comb. Simple attributive (sense 1), as farming-system; (sense 2), as farming-country, farming-interest, farming-land, farming-life, farming-operation, farming-plan, farming-regulation; farming-office = farm-office; farming-stock, the live stock and produce of a farm.
| a 1764 Lloyd Spirit Contradiction Poet. Wks. 1774 II. 144 Friend Jerkin..rented, on the farming plan Grounds at much greater sums per ann. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. i. xi. (1869) I. 152 The ordinary profits of farming-stock in the neighbourhood. 1792 A. Young Trav. France 131 A very..commodious house, with farming-offices, on the most ample and solid scale. 1799 Morning Post in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1800) III. 10 Any bye-laws or farming-regulations. 1828–40 Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) I. 240 note, The farming operations of ploughing and harrowing. 1845 M{supc}Culloch Taxation ii. iv. (1852) 202 The farming interest was far more depressed after the peace. 1872 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 287 Large areas of farming and garden land. |
▪ II. farming, ppl. a.
(ˈfɑːmɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That farms, in senses of the vb.
| 1551 Edw. VI. Disc. Ref. Abuses in Lit. Rem. (Roxb.) II. 482 True gentlemen (I meane not theis ferming gentlemen, nor clarking knightes). 1885 Edwards in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9) XIX. 580 It put a board of postmasters in room of a farming postmaster-general. |