farm

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Related to farming: Organic farming, Poultry farming

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bet the farm

To risk everything on a venture that one thinks will be successful. Primarily heard in US. I wouldn't bet the farm on that wacky invention. He's broke now because he bet the farm on a failed business venture.

bought the farm

Died. Did you hear that old Walt bought the farm? What a shame—at least he got to spend 92 years on this earth.

buy it

1. slang To believe that something is true. My brother says that his latest scheme will make millions, but I'm not buying it. I told the teacher that my dog ate my homework, and she totally bought it! At least I think she did.

2. slang To die. When Ray got back last night, he told the boss that the informant bought it and won't be a problem anymore.

See also: buy

buy the farm

slang To die. Did you hear that old Walt bought the farm? What a shame—at least he got to spend 92 years on this earth.

See also: buy, farm

couldn't organise a chook raffle at a poultry farm

(Someone) is utterly incompetent or unable to arrange things successfully; (someone) can't even manage or carry out the simplest of tasks. ("Chook" is an informal term for a hen or chicken.) Primarily heard in Australia. I'm not surprised Marie's event was a disaster—she couldn't organise a chook raffle at a poultry farm! The leaders of this country couldn't organise a chook raffle at a poultry farm, let alone overhaul the entire tax code!

factory farming

An inexpensive and efficient system of farming in which animals are fed for growth and kept in small pens. Usually used in a derogatory manner to highlight the negative consequences of such a system. Can we implement a system that is more humane than factory farming?

farm out

1. To cause land to become infertile from excessive farming. A noun or pronoun can be used between "farm" and "out." If we plant crops here again this season, we run the risk of farming out the field.

2. To assign work to someone or something outside of the person or company of origin. A noun or pronoun can be used between "farm" and "out." We decided to farm this filing project out to another company because we didn't have any employees to spare for it.

3. To place one's child in someone else's care. A noun or pronoun can be used between "farm" and "out." Since our anniversary is this weekend, do you think we can farm the kids out to your parents?

4. To have an employee do work for someone else. A noun or pronoun can be used between "farm" and "out." I can't farm out my assistant, I'd be lost without her!

5. In baseball, to send a major league player to a minor league team (i.e. a "farm team"). A noun or pronoun can be used between "farm" and "out." I know I haven't had a great season so far, but I never expected management to farm me out.

See also: farm, out

fat farm

A slightly derogatory term for a clinic, treatment center, or resort that is aimed at helping people lose weight. My weight ballooned after the inactivity that resulted from my surgery, so I'm heading to the fat farm this summer to try to get it back to normal.

funny farm

slang A derogatory term for a psychiatric hospital or mental health facility. I'm getting so burnt out that I feel like I'm losing my mind. If I don't take a vacation soon, I'll be headed to the funny farm!

give away the farm

To give another party all or the majority of the benefits in a deal or transaction. You were so eager to sign a contract with a manufacturing partner that you ended up giving away the farm. Now they're going to be the ones to get all the profits from sales! Make sure you don't give away the farm during negotiations. You don't want to find yourself at a disadvantage by the end of things.

How you gonna keep (someone) down on the farm?

Used to suggest that someone will not be content with their previous life after meeting someone, experiencing something, or seeing some place that is more exciting. Often followed by "after they've seen someone/something/some place." A reference to the World War I song "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree?)" A: "He went on a school trip to New York City, and now he's obsessed with moving out of Lubbock." B: "Well, what did you expect? How you gonna keep him down on the farm after he's seen the Big Apple?"

link farm

A group of websites that all link to each other, so as to increase their SEO value. Are link farms considered a form of spam?

sell the farm

To risk all of one's assents on a venture that one thinks will be hugely successful or rewarding. I wouldn't sell the farm on that wacky invention. He's broke now because he sold the farm on a foolish business venture.

you can bet the farm on (someone or something)

You can have total confidence in the ability of someone or something to succeed. He may have retired five years ago, but I still think you could bet the farm on him to win the heavyweight championship if he ever decided to put the gloves back on. If you're looking for a PC that won't let you down, then you can bet the farm on this one.

you can bet the farm that (something will happen or is the case)

You can be absolutely certain that something will happen or is the case. Typically used in relation to larger or more serious hypothetical outcomes. Well, you can bet the farm that those yahoos in Congress won't do anything to fix this problem. You can bet the farm that this announcement is little more than a PR stunt.

See also: bet, can, farm, happen, that, will

buy the farm

and buy it

Sl. to die; to get killed. (The farm is a burial plot.) I'll pass through this illness; I'm too young to buy the farm. He lived for a few hours after his collapse, but then he bought it.

See also: buy, farm

farm someone out

1. [for someone in control] to send someone to work for someone else. I have farmed my electrician out for a week, so your work will have to wait. We farmed out the office staff.

2. to send a child away to be cared for by someone; to send a child to boarding school. We farmed the kids out to my sister for the summer. We farmed out the kids.

See also: farm, out

farm something out

1. to deplete the fertility of land by farming too intensely. They farmed their land out through careless land management. They farmed out their land.

2. to send work to someone to be done away from one's normal place of business; to subcontract work. We farmed the assembly work out. We always farm out the actual final assembly of the finished units.

See also: farm, out

sell the farm

and bet the farm

Fig. to liquidate all one's assets in order to raise money to invest in something. It's a risky proposition. I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

You can bet the farm (on someone or something).

Rur. You can be certain of someone or something. This is a good investment. You can bet the farm on it. You can bet the farm that Joe is gonna get that job.

buy it

1. Suffer a severe reversal, as in If they can't raise the money in time, they'll buy it. [Slang; mid-1900s]

2. Be killed; die. For example, By the time we could get to the hospital, he had bought it. Originating during World War I as military slang, this term later was extended to peacetime forms of death. A later slang equivalent is buy the farm, dating from about 1950. For example, He'll soon buy the farm riding that motorcycle. According to J.E. Lighter, it alludes to training flights crashing in a farmer's field, causing the farmer to sue the government for damages sufficient to pay off the farm's mortgage. Since the pilot usually died in such a crash, he in effect bought the farm with his life.

3. Believe it; see buy something.

See also: buy

buy the farm

see under buy it.

See also: buy, farm

farm out

Assign something to an outsider; subcontract something. For example, The contractor was so busy he had to farm out two jobs to a colleague, or When their mother was hospitalized, the children had to be farmed out to the nearest relatives . This term originally referred to letting or leasing land. Today it usually refers to subcontracting work or the care of a dependent to another. In baseball it means "to assign a player to a lesser ( farm) league," as opposed to a big league. [Mid-1600s]

See also: farm, out

fat farm

A clinic or resort where people go to lose weight, as in She spends all her vacations at a fat farm but it hasn't helped so far. This is a somewhat derisive term for such an establishment. [Colloquial; 1960s]

buy the farm

AMERICAN, INFORMAL

If someone buys the farm, they die. Sometimes I believed I was cured. Maybe I wasn't going to buy the farm after all. Note: A possible explanation for this expression is that, in wartime, American Air Force pilots sometimes said that they wanted to stop flying, buy a farm or ranch, and lead a peaceful life. `Buy the farm' then came to be used when a pilot was killed in a crash.

See also: buy, farm

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

bet the farm

risk everything that you own on a bet, investment, or enterprise. North American informal

buy the farm

die. North American informal

This expression originated as US military slang, probably with the meaning that the pilot (or owner) of a crashed plane owes money to the farmer whose property or land is damaged in the crash.

See also: buy, farm

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

bet the ˈfarm/ˈranch

(American English) risk everything that you have on something: It might succeed but don’t bet the farm on it. ♢ It’s a bet-the-farm situation.

buy the ˈfarm

(informal, humorous, especially American English) die: I’d like to visit India one day, before I buy the farm.This comes from the military, perhaps referring to the dream of many soldiers and pilots of buying a farm when the war was over.

See also: buy, farm

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

farm out

1. To distribute or delegate something, especially a task or responsibility: The camp counselor farmed out the cleaning tasks to the campers. We farmed the chores out to the kids.

2. Baseball To demote a major-league player to a minor-league team: The coach decided to farm the catcher out until he improved. The struggling pitcher was farmed out yesterday.

See also: farm, out

buy it

tv. to die. (see also buy the farm, buy the big one.) He lay there coughing for a few minutes, and then he bought it.

See also: buy

buy the farm

tv. to die; to get killed. (The farm may be a grave site. No one knows the origin.) I’m too young to buy the farm.

See also: buy, farm

funny farm

n. an insane asylum; a psychiatric hospital. He’s really weird. They’re going to send him to the funny farm.

buy it

Slang

To be killed.

See also: buy

buy the farm

Slang

To die, especially suddenly or violently.

See also: buy, farm

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

buy the farm

Die, be killed. This term dates from about 1950, and alludes to military pilots on training flights over rural areas of the United States. Occasionally a pilot would crash and damage a farmer’s land; the farmer then would sue the government for an amount large enough to pay off the mortgage. Since such a crash was nearly always fatal, the pilot was said to buy the farm with his life. An older equivalent is buy it, which since World War I has meant to be killed and also, since the 1930s, to be charged for damaging something.

See also: buy, farm

farm out, to

To assign to an outsider, to subcontract. This term, which originated in the mid-1600s, at that time meant to lease land. Its current meaning dates from the 1900s. It is gradually being replaced by outsource, with the same meaning. Thus, “The publisher can’t afford an in-house copy editor so it farms out that work to freelancers” or “When you phone your Internet provider you often get someone from India or Bangladesh; they outsource all their calls.”

fat farm

A resort or camp where overweight persons go to lose weight. Considered impolite, the term arose in the second half of the 1900s and with the growing incidence of obesity has become a cliché. The ABC television sitcom The Odd Couple had it in 1971: “If you’re not fat, it’s a health farm; if you’re fat, it’s a fat farm.”

buy the farm

Die. This phrase comes from the military: members of the armed forces were issued insurance policies. Many servicemen speculated that when they returned to civilian life, they would buy a farm back home or pay off the mortgage on one that they or their parents owned. To die was literally to retire, and so combat victims were said to have “bought the farm.” Other phrases that mean “to die” are “cash in your chips” (as if checking out of a poker game), “fall off the perch” (an expiring caged bird), and “go South” (someone now living up North returning to his or her native soil).

See also: buy, farm

See also:

References in periodicals archive ?

The book also discusses the American Agricultural Movement, an important grassroots effort to sustain family-oriented farming and its values.

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A sustainable farming system is the very foundation of organic agriculture--some degree of animal husbandry, composting, organic manure and also crop rotation.

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Still, Costa Rica's ranks of butterfly breeders, all of whom fell into the strange occupation by chance, maintain that those who succeed and stick with butterfly farming do it for love.

Butterflies Aren't Free

Many in the rural Inman, Kansas community are General Conference Mennonites who have a very long history and tradition of farming. These values remain, in part, for all who come from that geographical region.

The Pupil in the Rural School

Growers reap social benefits as well, as CSAs create a community accepting and supportive of the sacrifices farming life entails.

Diamonds in the Dirt?

The topography of the land and the climate of an area generally determine the type of farming that is done.

Farm operators and managers

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MARTS

This is certainly the case four years after Successful Farming launched its rural lifestyle publication, Living the Country Life.

Updates from the media

fish farming industry fivefold over the next two decades.

Open aquaculture: are fish farmers solving their own problems?

Western North Carolina is a fantastic place to live or to visit in part because we have a rich history of family farming that continues into the present, as evidenced by the picturesque working landscape of our mountains.

Local abundance just around the corner

The New York Times weighed in on the controversy in a 17 January 2004 editorial that concluded, "The real message of the study is that the fish farming industry needs to clean up its feeding materials to reduce the level of contaminants.