ranch
Americannoun
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an establishment maintained for raising livestock under range conditions.
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Chiefly Western U.S. and Canada. a large farm used primarily to raise one kind of crop or animal.
a mink ranch.
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a dude ranch.
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the persons employed or living on a ranch.
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I’ll have the small salad, with ranch on the side.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a large tract of land, esp one in North America, together with the necessary personnel, buildings, and equipment, for rearing livestock, esp cattle
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any large farm for the rearing of a particular kind of livestock or crop
a mink ranch
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the buildings, land, etc, connected with it
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verb
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(intr) to manage or run a ranch
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(tr) to raise (animals) on or as if on a ranch
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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ranchsimple
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ranchessimple
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have ranchedperfect
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has ranchedperfect
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am ranchingprogressive
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are ranchingprogressive
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is ranchingprogressive
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have been ranchingperfect progressive
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has been ranchingperfect progressive
Past
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ranchedsimple
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had ranchedperfect
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was ranchingprogressive
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were ranchingprogressive
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had been ranchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ranch
An Americanism dating from 1800–10; from Spanish rancho “farm, cattle farm, ranch”; see origin at rancho
Explanation
A ranch is a large farm that raises animals, generally grazing animals like cows or sheep. If you dream of raising big, strange-looking birds, you could decide to have an emu or an ostrich ranch instead. Ranches raise animals for meat, and in the case of sheep or alpacas, for wool. When you work on a ranch, you can say that you ranch. A ranch is also a type of single-story, simple house architecturally influenced by the western, informal style of working ranches, which first appeared in the 1950s in the Western US. Ranch comes from the Spanish rancho, first "group of people who eat together" and later "group of farm huts."
Vocabulary lists containing ranch
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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.
See Examples For:
The Walkman disappeared long ago, but the sturdy, blue 1985 Toyota 4x4 pickup truck can still be found in the Texas Hill Country at Jeff Kent’s 3,000-acre ranch on the outskirts of San Antonio.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
Tijerina and his wife have ownership interests in a number of Laredo businesses, including a hemp farm which produces CBD products, an oil and gas exploration firm, a ranch and a real estate development company.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
Even before Sunday’s championship match between Spain and Argentina, there had been some clear winners at the World Cup that was co-hosted by the U.S., ranging from Cape Verde’s goalie to ranch salad dressing.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 19, 2026
As it happens, thinking about ranch is his full-time job.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Him, stubborn about things that mattered to him, like his ranch and this country.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
Some dairy farms send calves out to third-party calf ranches for rearing.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
He donated his roughly 80,000-acre McGinley Ranch in Nebraska to the nonprofit and said in the future, he would consider donating four more Nebraska ranches spanning 445,000 acres.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
When it came to buying ranches, “price never really got in the way for Ted,” Taylor said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
She said cattle herds were at lows not seen since the 1950s and that the industry had lost more than 100,000 ranches in the last 10 years.
From MarketWatch ● May 4, 2026
Small ranches and dairy farms dotted the land, and sunflowers lined the back roads.
From "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" by Eric Schlosser
This weekend, the delegation from Hidden Valley has been mobilized to the New York area—because anything can be ranched.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
In the 1880s, Theodore Roosevelt hunted and ranched as a young man in the Badlands of what is now western North Dakota.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 25, 2023
These ancient wetlands had been plundered for timber, then ranched, and finally acquired by the state in the 1970s to nurture back to life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2021
When Letseoma was growing up in this house, her father had farmed and ranched and had owned horses, cattle, sheep, and chickens.
From Slate ● Jan. 29, 2021
As Grandpa got older he ranched less and farmed more, until one day he stopped farming.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
The show depicts the power struggles between patriarch John Dutton III, his children, the locals, and the outsiders seeking to change their bucolic ranching way of life.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
The practice of ranching can be traced back about 75 years to the man who had a brilliant idea to combine mayonnaise, buttermilk, herbs and spices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
The U.S. urgently needs a cattle policy worthy of its ranching tradition.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
Talbot said from the federal to the local level, everyone in the ranching community has been talking about the arrival of screwworm and how to combat it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
“In the fifties, when my father was ranching, it was two or three years old. Now we get there at fourteen to sixteen months.”
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
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.
