tenant farmer

a person who farms the land of another and pays rent with cash or with a portion of the produce.

Origin of tenant farmer

First recorded in 1855–60

He was a tenant-farmer's son, this Roger, and a likely good-for-naught.

Master Skylark |John Bennett
One word on the subject of the income tax, which is now so oppressive to the tenant-farmer.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 416, June 1850 |Various
By this law a tenant-farmer is able to bequeath his farm, that is to say, he holds his lease in perpetuity.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 5 |Various
I take the free-trade landlord, and I take the tenant-farmer.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 416, June 1850 |Various

In speaking of the tenant-farmers he said, 'The tenant-farmer will under free trade be an independent man.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 67, No. 411, January 1850 |Various

tenant farmer

a person who farms land rented from another, the rent usually taking the form of part of the crops grown or livestock reared