Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small ranch or large home lot, often on the outskirts of a major metropolitan area and just past the planned neighborhoods, consisting of 40 acres and a house and possibly a barn or other outbuildings.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

ranch +‎ -ette

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Examples

  • And if that's so, the president also needs to stay in town instead of rushing off to clear that poor brush again on his "ranchette" set in Waco and negotiate in good faith to protect the American people.

    Archive 2007-08-01 Ann Althouse 2007

  • After hearing me rant about the proliferation of 5- acre "ranchette" subdivisions surrounding Magdalena, Mary Zeiss Stange sent me a wonderful essay she had published on the subject in USA Today!

    Archive 2006-05-01 2006

  • After hearing me rant about the proliferation of 5- acre "ranchette" subdivisions surrounding Magdalena, Mary Zeiss Stange sent me a wonderful essay she had published on the subject in USA Today!

    Ranchettes 2006

  • The hordes of coastal suburbanites who are buying up former ranchland in "ranchette" subdivisions LOVE this weather, even as wildlife, ranchers,and stock all suffer and the Forest Service who have deliberately or accidentally set every fire in the two nearest ranges in the last three years forbid the public use of their forests, even if we do not set fires.

    Rain 2006

  • The hordes of coastal suburbanites who are buying up former ranchland in "ranchette" subdivisions LOVE this weather, even as wildlife, ranchers,and stock all suffer and the Forest Service who have deliberately or accidentally set every fire in the two nearest ranges in the last three years forbid the public use of their forests, even if we do not set fires.

    Archive 2006-07-01 2006

  • Although, 90 acres in our country is a "ranchette", not a ranch.

    grouse Diary Entry grouse 2003

  • And the fellows who swiped new snowmachines, because their old ones would no longer make the ten-mile trip in and out of their "ranchette", are probably still living at state expense just outside town.

    grouse Diary Entry grouse 2003

  • But such problems and protests are not likely to stop the encroachment -- ranchette life is just too good.

    Ranching The Nouvelle West 2008

  • "It's carving us up and turningus into a checkerboard of 35acre lots," said Mike Maag, manager of ranchette-rich Douglas County, south of Denver.

    Ranching The Nouvelle West 2008

  • The problem has become so acute that a Colorado state senator has just moved to restrict ranchette development; Gov.

    Ranching The Nouvelle West 2008

Comments

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  • I can't imagine anyone referring to their ranch as a ranchette. It sounds just as demeaning as the suffix -ette added to many "female" words.

    August 10, 2015

  • I didn't realize this was a word! I'd think of this as, say, an acreage.

    August 10, 2015

  • A dollopino of ranch dressing. Just enough for a slider.

    August 10, 2015