agriculture
(ˈægrɪˌkʌltjʊər, -tʃə(r))
[ad. (prob. through Fr. agriculture, 17th c. in Littré), L. agricultūra, i.e. agri cultūra tillage of the land: see culture.]
The science and art of cultivating the soil; including the allied pursuits of gathering in the crops and rearing live stock; tillage, husbandry, farming (in the widest sense).
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 9 Such tooles as pertaine to Agriculture and husbandrie. 1650 J. Jones Judges Judged 35 Their sweet Farmhouses, large fields, and industrious Agricultures. 1658 Sir T. Browne Gard. Cyrus II. 504 Future discovery in Botanical Agriculture. 1751 Johnson Rambl. No. 145 ¶3 If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science. 1831 Scott Anne of G. iii. 45 A glance round the walls showed the implements of agriculture. |
b. restricted to, Tillage. rare.
| 1862 Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. xii. 228 The lands..were not fields for agriculture, but pastures for cattle. |