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farmer

1 American  
[fahr-mer] / ˈfɑr mər /

noun

  1. a person who farms; person who operates a farm or cultivates land.

  2. Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. an unsophisticated or ignorant person, especially one from a rural area.

  3. Archaic. a person who undertakes some service, as the care of children or poor people, at a fixed price.

  4. Archaic. a person who undertakes the collection of taxes, duties, etc., paying a fixed sum for the privilege of retaining them.

  5. Cards.

    1. a variety of twenty-one played with a 45-card pack, the object being to obtain cards having a total worth of 16.

    2. the dealer in this game.

Farmer 2 American  
[fahr-mer] / ˈfɑr mər /

noun

  1. Fannie (Merritt) 1857–1915, U.S. authority on cooking.

  2. James (Leonard), 1920–1999, U.S. civil rights leader; founder of CORE.

farmer 1 British  
/ ˈfɑːmə /

noun

  1. a person who operates or manages a farm

  2. 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

  3. a person who looks after a child for a fixed sum

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Farmer 2 British  
/ ˈfɑːmə /

noun

  1. John. ?1565–1605, English madrigal composer and organist

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Sensitive Note

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.”

Other Word Forms

  • farmerlike adjective
  • profarmer adjective
  • underfarmer noun

Etymology

Origin of farmer

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”; farm, -er 2

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Ben Steffen, a farmer in southeast Nebraska, said he was budgeting to pay $4,000 to $5,000 more in diesel than he previously expected this planting season.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

“I’m not a farmer today, but I thought I would be. … I believe in the future of agriculture with a faith born not of words, but of deeds,” Porter said, repeating FFA’s creed.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2026

"Three families lived off this place. Look what they’ve done to me. I'm 55 years old. What job can I do now?" the livestock farmer sobbed.

From Barron's • Mar. 30, 2026

A farmer has warned that it is "inevitable" that the cost of potatoes in shops will increase as producers grapple to cope with the impact of the conflict in the Middle East.

From BBC • Mar. 29, 2026

“Roz, you’re a farmer now, and sometimes farmers have to kill animals!”

From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown

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.