Question of the Day #405

"IOG said Friday it had signed binding definitive agreements with CER to farm out 50% of its North Sea assets...as well as the Thames pipeline and Thames receiving facility."
From the fourth paragraph of this article at S&P Global.

上記の文で、farm out の意味は？
In the sentence above, what does "farm out" mean?

答えは、コメントに書いてください。
Write your answer in the Comments.

明日、ここに答えを書きます。
I will add the answer and other remarks here tomorrow.

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解答

意味：
英辞郎によると、


〔仕事を〕外注［アウトソーシング］する、下請けに出す

他にもいくつかの意味があるので、上記リンクを参照してください。

Answer

According to Merriam-Webster:

to turn over for performance by another usually under contract

Etymology/語源

Merriam-Websterによると、

上記の意味で初めて使われたのは、1600年ごろ。

According to Merriam-Webster:

First Known Use of farm out
circa 1600, in the meaning defined

Examples

• We could always farm the typing out to freelancers.
• The trend for corporate legal staffs is to do more work in-house, instead of farming it out to law firms.
• We can take advantage of new technology more quickly by farming out computer operations. 
• Magazines often farm out articles to freelance journalists.