agriculturaladj.
/ˌaɡrᵻˈkʌltʃ(ə)rəl/, /ˌaɡrᵻˈkʌltʃ(ə)rl̩/, U.S. /ˌæɡrəˈkəltʃ(ə)rəl/ 1. Of, relating to, or used in agriculture: (also occasionally) of, relating to, or characteristic of the countryside; rural, rustic.
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the world > food and drink > farming > [adjective]
georgical1588
geoponical1646
agricultural1661
geoponic1663
georgic1690
agricolous1779
agric1812
ag1844
terracultural-
1661 J. Gadbury Britains Royal Star To Rdr. I desire and plead for the toleration of Astrologie... As, by the Decubital and Critical parts thereof, Physitians are befriended; by the Agricultural part, the Husbandman.
1757 M. Postlethwayt Britain's Commerc. Interest I. iv. 124 The best agricultural philosophers, and practical farmers.
1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations II. iv. viii. 256 The agricultural systems of political œconomy will not require so long an explanation.
1791 ‘T. Newte’ Prospects & Observ. Tour 241 Oak..fit for agricultural utensils, and timbering for the roofs of houses.
1801 S. Shaw Hist. & Antiq. Staffs. II. 121/2 The New Hydraulic Ram, which is a self-moving water-work applicable to agricultural purposes.
1814 S. T. Coleridge Lett. (1895) II. 638 Of all scribblers these agricultural quarto-mongers are the vilest.
1820 E. T. Luscombe Observ. Preserv. Health Soldiers 93 Employed in agricultural pursuits or as out-door manufacturers.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 413 Four shillings a week therefore were..fair agricultural wages.
1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People ix. §9. 697 The farms of Lothian have become models of agricultural skill.
1878 All Year Round 19 Jan. 563/1 Dick Thoms proved to be a burly Cumberland giant, of decidedly agricultural appearance.
1902 B. T. Washington Up from Slavery xvii. 312 In addition to the agricultural training which we give to young men..we now train a number of girls in agriculture each year.
2008 Independent 20 June 34/1 Some of humankind's most significant advances throughout history have been a result of agricultural innovation.
2. Engaged in agriculture; (also) dependent on or sustained by agriculture.
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1791 T. Coxe Brief Exam. Lord Sheffield's Observ. on Commerce U.S. 46 The wretched situation of the agricultural poor in countries, where the high value of land renders it in effect a monopoly.
1828 N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 135 Guatemala..was an agricultural, not a mining country.
1849 A. Alison Hist. Europe from French Revol. (new ed.) I. ii. 121 The agricultural population, at both periods, was double the manufacturing.
1897 M. L. Hughes Mediterranean Fever ii. 91 Isolated agricultural villages, never visited by the inhabitants of the infected towns.
1924 Glasgow Herald 14 Aug. 7 The Kabyles are agricultural Berbers living in the uplands of Morocco and Algeria.
1991 European Sociol. Rev. 7 261/2 Why should small owners and manual workers have relatively less developed cognitive skills than, for example, farmers or agricultural labourers?
3. Sport (originally Cricket). Of a stroke, shot, style of play, etc.: unorthodox and clumsy; characterized by power but lacking elegance.Cf. cow-shot n. at cow n.1 Compounds 2, haymaker n. 4b.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > batting > [adjective] > types of stroke
slashing1832
skied1868
on-side1898
agricultural1899
offside1900
skimming1930
slashed1974
1899 Harmsworth Mag. June 412/2 He has always been a bat of the instructive order; that is to say, he never made an ugly or ‘agricultural’ stroke in his life.
1931 Times 6 May 7/2 Having survived one violent agricultural shot, when the ball by some dispensation missed the stumps, he hit nobly both with and against the break.
1955 Times 25 July 3/4 Keith..took an agricultural swing at Wardle and was bowled.
1996 Sun Herald (Sydney) (Nexis) 24 Nov. (News) 4 The President started shakily, with a few ‘agricultural’ shots, a grubber and laughter when he missed a putt on the first green.
2005 Northern Echo 8 July 22 A slight dig at the Merseyside club's somewhat agricultural style.
2007 Matlock Mercury (Nexis) 30 May Smith decided with ten overs left it was the time for acceleration, went for a rather agricultural shot, and was clean bowled by Junaid.
Compounds
agricultural ant n. U.S. an ant that harvests grass seed or cultivates fungi; spec. the red harvester ant of Texas, Pogonomyrmex barbatus, which clears all vegetation from the vicinity of the nest apart from prairie three-awn grass (ant rice).
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Hymenoptera > [noun] > suborder Apocrita, Petiolata, or Heterophaga > group Aculeata (stinging) > ant > pogonomyrmex barbatus (agricultural ant)
agricultural ant1860
1860 G. Lincecum Let. 29 Dec. in C. Darwin Corr. (1993) VIII. 543 The agricultural ants—but no other species of ant—are locating their cities along the turn rows in the fields.
1905 S. A. Forbes 23rd Rep. State Entomologist Noxious & Beneficial Insects Illinois 159 The curious agricultural ant of Texas bares the ground about its nest by cutting down and removing all vegetation.
2007 Washington Post (Nexis) 7 Oct. r8 I always thought these fungus-growing ants, the agricultural ants, were the coolest organisms I'd ever heard of.
agricultural chemistry n. the science of chemistry and biochemistry in their relation to agriculture, esp. agricultural production, the utilization of agricultural products, and (in later use) environmental matters.
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1795 Monthly Rev. Sept. 70 To give our readers a general idea of the work as a treatise on agricultural chemistry.
1844 R. W. Emerson Young Amer. 15 Agricultural chemistry..offering, by means of a teaspoonful of artificial guano, to turn a sandbank into corn.
1910 C. M. Aikman Manures 16 The question of the source of the plant's nitrogen—a question which may be fitly described at the present hour as still the burning question of agricultural chemistry.
2011 Hobart Mercury (Nexis) 22 Mar. 20 With a degree majoring in agricultural chemistry, Hazel returned to Tasmania, and..did a doctorate at UTAS studying brown boronia.
agricultural college n. an educational establishment which teaches subjects relating to agriculture.
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society > education > place of education > college or university > [noun] > college > other colleges
agricultural college1778
state college1806
ladies' college1835
fem sem1842
junior college1899
ag1905
correspondence college1911
Aggie1920
seven sisters1927
juku1962
sixth-form college1965
1778 W. Marshall Minutes Agric. Misc. Articles 112 He now means to speak of Agricultural Colleges.
1849 S. De Witt (title) Considerations on the necessity of establishing an agricultural college.
1918 W. Owen Let. 16 Mar. (1967) 540 Send him to school. Or if pride forbids, call it an agricultural college.
2006 Independent 24 May 3/3 She studied veterinary science at agricultural college.
agricultural engineer n. an expert or specialist in agricultural engineering.
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1825 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Agric. 1079 Of agricultural engineers there are considerable variety.
1899 Agric. Jrnl. (Dept. Agric. Cape Good Hope) 30 Mar. 427 There is a system of higher training for..those intended to be managers of large estates, agricultural engineers, and professors and teachers of agriculture.
2011 North Devon Jrnl. (Nexis) 10 Mar. 35 On leaving school at 15 he wanted to be an agricultural engineer but his father insisted he spend a year on the farm first.
agricultural engineering n. the application of engineering to agriculture, as in land use, agricultural machinery, product processing, etc.
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1807 New Ann. Reg. 1806 Domest. Lit. 318/1 It gives a plain account of various and very extensive improvements in this branch of agricultural engineering.
1888 P. G. Craigie Rep. French Agric. Schools (C. 5609) iii. 34 in Parl. Papers 1888 CVI. 613 Agricultural engineering, the construction of buildings and use of implements, and farm account-keeping have a place in the program.
1956 Jrnl. Agric. Engin. Res. 1 Foreword The lack of a suitable journal for agricultural engineering research has been very evident for some time.
2005 Pilot Oct. 44/2 He left school for college to study agricultural engineering—a natural choice after a childhood de-coking lawnmowers and helping local farmers repair tractors.
agricultural entomology n. the branch of entomology concerned with the harmful and beneficial effects of insects on agricultural practices.
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1834 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Gardening (new ed.) ii. iv. iii. 692 Both are the larvæ of different small moths; but, from the lamentable neglect that agricultural entomology has hitherto received, the perfect insects have never been ascertained.
1853 Genesee (Rochester, N.Y.) Farmer Sept. 272 For some reason Agricultural Entomology is less studied and understood than almost any other branch of rural knowledge.
1927 F. Balfour-Browne Insects ix. 249 The Colonies are employing more and more men trained in Agricultural Entomology.
2007 R. L. Blackman & V. F. Eastop in H. F. van Emden & R. Harrington Aphids as Crop Pests i. 6/1 It seems unrealistic to expect the wide acceptance and use in aphid taxonomy or agricultural entomology of the term semispecies.
agricultural fair n. chiefly North American a gathering or event at which exhibitions of livestock, crops, agricultural equipment, etc., are featured; an agricultural show.
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1802 Commerc. & Agric. Mag. Aug. 148 An Agricultural fair was lately held at the national farm of Rambouillet.
1887 Friend 61 39/1 The friends of morality ought to discourage its [sc. horse-racing's] introduction into Agricultural Fairs.
1928 A. C. True Hist. Agric. Extension Work in U.S. 47 This work was to include corn and stock judging at agricultural fairs, institutes, and clubs.
2012 Jackson (Mississippi) Advocate (Electronic ed.) 9 Aug. 16 a In 15 of the confirmed cases, contact with swine occurred while attending or exhibiting swine at an agricultural fair.
agricultural revolution n. (a) any of various dramatic and wide-reaching changes in the practice of agriculture, usually associated with an increased output; (b) spec. (with the and sometimes with capital initials) the transformation of British agriculture traditionally regarded as taking place in England in the 18th and early 19th centuries around the time of the Industrial Revolution, characterized by the enclosure of common land and the introduction of technological innovations such as the seed drill and the rotation of crops; cf. agrarian revolution n. at agrarian adj. and n. Compounds.
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1810 H. Townsend Statist. Surv. County Cork 560 The use of artificial grasses, drill husbandry, and well constructed ploughs..may be considered as the first step to an agricultural revolution.
1859 All Year Round 12 Nov. 57 Our greatest agricultural revolution was produced by feeding mutton on oil-cake and sliced turnips.
1914 M. Briggs Econ. Hist. Eng. 166 We can probably say here that the agricultural revolution was secondary to the industrial, and a direct effect of it, though the ground had been already prepared.
1980 M. Shoard Theft of Countryside i. 12 The first Agricultural Revolution was the discovery in Neolithic times, probably about 3,800 BC, that the same piece of land could grow crops more than once.
1996 I. Donnachie et al. Studying Sc. Hist., Lit. & Culture 31 Peasant society..before the Agricultural Revolution was generally made up of the farmers..and a dependent class of cottars and farm servants.
2010 R. Mabey Weeds vi. 127 A young Finn..travelled to England to study and write about the progress of the agricultural revolution.
agricultural science n. the application of science to agriculture; the field of study concerned with this.
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the world > food and drink > farming > [noun] > farming sciences
agriculture1565
georgics1594
geoponics1608
rural science?1750
agricultural science1775
agronomy1796
agronomics1825
agrometeorology1925
agrobiology1930
agroecology1930
agrotechnology1932
agrology1946
agro-ecosystem1949
agriscience1958
green revolution1968
cereology1990
agromechanization2006
1775 Monthly Rev. Dec. 467 The..promotion of agricultural science is among the many honourable characteristics of the present age.
1848 N. S. Davis Textbok. Agric. i. 2. Agricultural science..makes us acquainted with the composition and properties of soils and vegetables, and everything connected with the formation of the first, and the growth, maturity, and uses of the second.
1972 McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 1971 413/2 Agricultural science and technology met the challenge to increase animal production by developing procedures to raise large numbers of animals in confinement.
2011 Irish Times (Nexis) 24 Sept. 23 The pig enterprise fits in nicely with agricultural science, which he's taking as a Leaving Cert subject.
agricultural scientist n. an expert or specialist in agricultural science.
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1872 Rep. Commissioner U.S. Dept. Agric. 1871 238 The..words of Dr. Voelcker, the English agricultural scientist: ‘Experiments should be made as simple as possible.’
1919 Ten Days that shook World xii. 296 Agricultural properties..should be administered by Soviets composed of the regular employees of those properties, under the direction of competent agricultural scientists.
2007 World Devel. Rep. 2008 (World Bank) 223/3 The huge potential for women professionals to upgrade farming systems remains largely untapped, with women making up just 18 percent of African agricultural scientists.
agricultural show n. chiefly British a public event featuring exhibitions of livestock, crops, agricultural equipment, etc., and often also other entertainments and attractions.
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1807 Monthly Mag. July 612/1 The late Agricultural Show of Stock, at Chelmsford was in general good.
1891 ‘S. C. Scrivener’ Our Fields & Cities 148 Eliminate the stimulus given by manufacturers of implements, of artificial manures, and by the numerous competing seedsmen, and our agricultural shows would simply be a series of cattle fairs.
1949 ‘J. Tey’ Brat Farrar xxiv. 219 Mrs Stack,..being interested solely in rural industries, represented a Fixed Point in the flux of an agricultural show.
2008 U. McGovern Lost Crafts (2009) 29 An agricultural show can be one of the best places to learn more about traditional sheepshearing, as the programme will often include a hand-shearing demonstration or competition.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1661