homestead meaning

• Noun: homestead  howmsted
  1. The home and adjacent grounds occupied by a family 
  2. Land acquired from the United States public lands by filing a record and living on and cultivating it under the homestead law 
  3. Dwelling that is usually a farmhouse and adjoining land
  Verb: homestead  howmsted
  1. Settle land given by the government and occupy it as a homestead

  Derived forms: homesteaded, homesteads, homesteading

  See also: homesteader

  Type of: abode, acres, demesne, domicile, dwelling, dwelling house, estate, habitation, home, land, landed estate, settle

  Encyclopedia: Homestead, Iowa Homestead, IA Homestead, Michigan Homestead, MO Homestead, FL Homestead Homestead, Florida Homestead, Fl Homestead, The Homestead, Portland, Oregon Homestead, Wisconsin Homestead, WI Homestead, Oklahoma Homestead, Missouri Homestead, Pennsylvania Homestead, PA

• 
  [Architecture]
  1.

  In the United States, under the Homestead Act of 1862, a tract of unoccupied public land, 160 acres in area, that could be permanently acquired after five years of continuous occupancy and the payment of a fee. The Act was passed by the Congress to promote westward expansion and for the purposes of revenue; this quantity of acreage was deemed adequate for the support of one family. Any citizen who settled on such survey public land could purchase it from the government if he was the head of a family and over 21 years of age.

  2.

  The house built on such a tract.

  3. (Brit.)

  A group of buildings and the land forming the home of a family.

• homestead law:    Noun: homestead la ...

Examples

1. there are many old homesteads in new england.
2. the daylight revealed the whole of mr. melbury's homestead.
3. he was a survival from the days when gile's father held the homestead.
4. now boarding, track three, local, homestead ..
5. now boarding, track three, local, homestead