Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Homestead \Home"stead\, n. [AS. h[=a]mstede.]
   1. The home place; a home and the inclosure or ground
      immediately connected with it. --Dryden.

   2. The home or seat of a family; place of origin.

            We can trace them back to a homestead on the Rivers
            Volga and Ural.                       --W. Tooke.

   3. (Law) The home and appurtenant land and buildings owned by
      the head of a family, and occupied by him and his family.

   {Homestead law}.
      (a) A law conferring special privileges or exemptions upon
          owners of homesteads; esp., a law exempting a
          homestead from attachment or sale under execution for
          general debts. Such laws, with limitations as to the
          extent or value of the property, exist in most of the
          States. Called also {homestead exemption law}.
      (b) Also, a designation of an Act of Congress authorizing
          and regulating the sale of public lands, in parcels of
          160 acres each, to actual settlers. [U.S.]

Source : WordNet®

homestead
     n 1: the home and adjacent grounds occupied by a family
     2: land acquired from the United States public lands by filing
        a record and living on and cultivating it under the
        homestead law
     3: dwelling that is usually a farmhouse and adjoining land
     v : settle land given by the government and occupy it as a
         homestead