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farm out
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.
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.
farm out something (to somebody)
also farm something out (to somebody) to give work or responsibilities to other people Magazines often farm out articles to freelance writers. If you can't finish the reports by next week, you should farm them out.
farm out somebody (to somebody)
also farm somebody out (to somebody) to give someone to someone else who will take care of them She farmed out her children to her brother for two weeks.
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]
farm out
v.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.