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to farm out

to farm out

7 4.9
To pay another person or company to do work for you
  • phrasal verb
  • /fɑrm aʊt/
translation icon : subcontratar
  • Some pieces went to Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, others to SLAC itself; some were farmed out to the University of California-Riverside.

Are artists going to basically farm out their creativity to these these AI programs?

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Examples

  • The company decided to farm out its IT services to a specialized firm to save costs.

  • I frequently farm it out if I have to because I'm not awesome at it and my results are frequently substandard for me, but I can do it if I have to.

  • I offered to farm the work out to another writer for a lower rate.

    Blog text (10)
  • Mr. King farms out that kind of work.

  • Anyway, we farmed out the contracts and went into production almost immediately.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • The Mechanical Turk service allows developers to farm out simple tasks to human participants.

    Blog text (20)
  • You don't need to do every single thing because Steven is able to farm that out to other people that are competent and and good at what they do.

  • As local authorities drive down costs, social workers and service users face uncertain futures when services are farmed out to non-profit organizations and profit-making companies.

    Academic text (2011)
  • So that is work that I think can be farmed out productively to the GAISA library staff rather than me concentrating on it.

  • His signature Obamacare achievement was farmed out to Reid and Pelosi.

    Blog text (7)

Synonyms

to outsource
vsto farm out
65 5.3

To hire another company to do work your company usually does

is a general arrangement to pay others to do work or provide services
to subcontract
vsto farm out
  • Specialized
9 5.9

To hire another company to do part of a contract you must do

is arranging payment for others to do work rather than transferring legal responsibility
to contract out
vsto farm out
2 4.2

Pay an outside company to do work instead of hiring staff

is a broad way of hiring others to do work, not limited to internal staff
to have work done
vsto farm out
2 3.8

Get a professional to do a job for you

is broader, covering repeated or paid services beyond single tasks
to job
vsto farm out
  • UK
7.4

To hire another company to do work for you

is the general act of arranging others to perform tasks or services

How Delegated

to outsource
65 5.3
to farm out
7 4.9
to delegate
45 3.7
to assign
487 2.7
to go it alone
  • Informal
26 5.3

Surface Forms

farm out infinitive
farmed out past
farmed out past participle
farming out present participle
farms out third person singular

Morphology

farm + out

The overall meaning 'to contract work to someone else' is not directly and literally derivable from 'farm' (to cultivate/manage a farm) and 'out' (away); the verb is a metaphorical extension where 'farm' suggests delegating or handing work off and 'out' signals externalization. This metaphorical usage is partially guessable (the particle 'out' often marks transfer), but the specific sense 'outsource/contract' is not fully predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure.

Etymology

The phrasal verb farm out may come from an old farming picture: a farmer would farm work out by sending jobs or animals to other people to look after. So farm out means 'to arrange for someone else to do the work'.