tractor out

English

Verb

tractor out (third-person singular simple present tractors out, present participle tractoring out, simple past and past participle tractored out)

1. (historical, transitive) To dismiss (a tenant, etc.) while replacing manual labour with tractors. [1930s]
   • 1965, Oscar Cargill, Toward a Pluralistic Criticism:

     How is one to elucidate or scrutinize Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath with no reference to the Dust Bowl, the tractoring out of the Okies […]

   • 1973, Lucas Webb, Stribling: A Novel:

     But there was no place to go to farm or settle; the farms were being deserted, the big combines tractoring out the shacks and the little fields […]