tenant farmer

/ˌtɛnənt ˌfɑrmər/

Other forms: tenant farmers

A tenant farmer grows crops or raises livestock on land that's owned by someone else. Most tenant farmers pay rent to a landlord for a house and farmland.

While some farmers own their land, tenant farmers are basically renters; tenant comes from a Latin root meaning "to hold" and was originally defined as "person who holds lands by lease." In most places, tenant farmers do own their crops and are free to decide where to sell them (and what to plant in the first place). A sharecropper, on the other hand, works the land on behalf of a landowner who has complete control over crops, equipment, animals, and seeds.

Definitions of tenant farmer

1. noun

   a farmer who works land owned by someone else
   type of:

   farmer, granger, husbandman, sodbuster

   a person who operates a farm

   tenant

   a holder of buildings or lands by any kind of title (as ownership or lease)