Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 1 feormian, 2 fermien, 5–7 ferm(e, (4 feerm), 7– farm. [OE. feormian, of unknown etymology; cf. OHG. â-fermi ‘squalor’ (Ahd. Glossen, I. 177).] trans. To cleanse, empty, purge.

1

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Luke iii. 17. He feormað his bernes flore.

2

1382.  Wyclif, 1 Kings x. 2. Thow shalt fynde two men byside the sepulcre of Rachel … feermynge greet dichis.

3

1401.  Political Poems (Rolls), II. 44.

        Have we not to hewen,
ne with Jakke Uplond
ferme the dikes.

4

1440.  J. Shirley, Dethe K. James (1818), 16. To clense and ferme the said privay.

5

1530.  Palsgr., 548/1. I ferme a siege or privy, Jescure.

6

1608.  Armim, Nest Ninn. (1842), 30. The fellow sat a long houre farming his mouth.

7

1881.  Oxford Gloss., Supp. s.v. ‘Farm out th’ ’en-us ŏŏl ee?’

8