bet the farm
bet the farm verb: to be absolutely certain, to have no doubts.
Verb
bet the farm (third-person singular simple present bets the farm, present participle betting the farm, simple past and past participle bet the farm)
- To be absolutely certain, to have no doubts.
- I'd be surprised if those two are still dating come Christmas, but I'm not betting the farm on a breakup just yet.
- Since Rupert Murdoch famously bet the farm on Premier League football to rescue Sky TV in 1991, it has been the catnip that has underpinned subscriber loyalty and, even in a far more complicated media landscape, is seen as so vital as to be worth almost any price.2016 October 24, Owen Gibson, “Is the unthinkable happening – are people finally switching the football off?”, in The Guardian, London
- Synonyms:
- bet one's bottom dollar, bet one's boots, bet the ranch, bet the house
- To make a substantial wager or risk.
Synonyms of bet the farm
Forms of bet the farm
| third-person singular present | bets the farm |
|---|---|
| present participle | betting the farm |
| past participle | bet the farm |
| past | bet the farm |
Origin of bet the farm
Possibly nothing more than a case of real estate as wager stakes, but also plausibly because farmers cannot avoid gambling and the stakes are financial ruin: they must make many decisions (such as which crops to plant each year, and how to manage livestock), and outside factors such as weather or changing commodity markets can dash their hopes. Thus, when making a decision they must ask themselves whether they are confident enough to bet the farm as the wager stakes.
Questions about bet the farm
- What does bet the farm mean?
- Bet the farm means to be absolutely certain, to have no doubts.
- What part of speech is bet the farm?
- Bet the farm is a verb.
- What is the past tense of bet the farm?
- The past tense of bet the farm is bet the farm.
Words near bet the farm in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bet the farm (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-bet the farm.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bet the farm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bet_the_farm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.