crofter

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • n crofter an owner or tenant of a small farm in Great Britain
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • n Crofter One who rents and tills a small farm or holding; as, the crofters of Scotland.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n crofter One who occupies or cultivates a croft; specifically, a small farmer on the western coast and islands of Scotland. The Scotch crofter is a small land-tenant, whose holding is not large enough to be called a farm or to support him by tillage. He is the counterpart of the Irish cottier.
    • n crofter Originally a customary tenant with well-defined rights to his holding, in the early nineteenth century the crofter came to be regarded merely as a tenant at will. Wholesale evictions of crofters led, in 1883, to the appointment of a parliamentary commission of investigation, the result of which was the enactment, in 1885, of the Crofters Act, which guaranteed permanence of tenure, compensation for improvements, and fair rents, determined by a permanent commission.
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Usage

In literature:

This he did before he claimed the room he had engaged by wire at the Hotel Crofter.
"Sundry Accounts" by Irvin S. Cobb
Even when the carriage came in sight he would not have been a bit surprised to have seen the crofter and his shrewish wife jump out of it.
"Little Folks (Septemeber 1884)" by Various
He took his mid-day meal at the Algonquin House, the leading hotel, and won the favour of Mr. Crofter, the proprietor.
"The End of the Rainbow" by Marian Keith
Improvements were not confined to the crofters' holdings; they extended to the castle farm and to the castle itself.
"Our Home in the Silver West" by Gordon Stables
Where many crofters had once tilled the soil, only a lone shepherd was now found, meditating on scenes of desolation.
"The Red River Colony" by Louis Aubrey Wood
The crofter's house may be poor, but it rings with the shouting of children at play, and love spreads its endless feast.
"Stand Up, Ye Dead" by Norman Maclean
She herself or one of the other crofter women of the townland would sing to us the mouth-music.
"The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries" by W. Y. Evans Wentz
They were evicted crofters from Perthshire, and misfortune, not drink or vice, had brought them so low.
"Notes on Old Edinburgh" by Isabella L. Bird
It was recited to me, over against Dun-I, by a friend who is a crofter in that part of Iona.
"The Divine Adventure Volume IV" by Fiona Macleod
I inquire of a crofter how far it is to Inverness.
"The Cruise of the Land-Yacht "Wanderer"" by Gordon Stables
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