Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Plowed but left unseeded during a growing season.
- adjective Characterized by inactivity.
- noun Land left unseeded during a growing season.
- noun The act of plowing land and leaving it unseeded.
- noun The condition or period of being unseeded.
- transitive verb To plow (land) without seeding it afterward.
- transitive verb To plow and till (land), especially to eradicate or reduce weeds.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To become fallow, pale, yellowish, or withered; fade; wither.
- Pale; pale-yellow; yellowish; sallow.
- To render fallow; put (land) into the condition of a fallow, namely, by plowing, harrowing, and breaking it without seeding, for the purpose of destroying weeds and insects and rendering it mellow: as, it is well to fallow cold, strong, clayey land.
- Plowed and left unseeded; left for a considerable time unworked or unseeded after tillage; untilled; uncultivated; neglected: said of land: often used figuratively.
- noun Land broken up by the plow to prepare it for future seeding; land that has lain for a considerable time unseeded after tillage.
- noun In agriculture, the method of allowing land to lie for a season or more untilled in order to increase its power of producing crops.
- noun One of the strakes of a cart.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Pale red or pale yellow.
- adjective Left untilled or unsowed after plowing; uncultivated.
- adjective (Zoöl.) a small European bird, the wheatear (
Saxicola œnanthe ). SeeWheatear . - transitive verb To plow, harrow, and break up, as land, without seeding, for the purpose of destroying weeds and insects, and rendering it mellow.
- noun obsolete Plowed land.
- noun Land that has lain a year or more untilled or unseeded; land plowed without being sowed for the season.
- noun The plowing or tilling of land, without sowing it for a season.
- noun [Eng.] the crop taken from a green fallow.
- noun [Eng.] fallow whereby land is rendered mellow and clean from weeds, by cultivating some green crop, as turnips, potatoes, etc.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective A
pale red oryellow ,light brown ;dun . - noun agriculture, uncountable
Ground ploughed andharrowed but leftunseeded for one year. - noun agriculture, uncountable
Uncultivated land . - noun agriculture, obsolete, countable An area of fallow land.
- adjective of agricultural land Ploughed but left unseeded for more than one planting season.
- adjective
Inactive ;undeveloped . - verb transitive To make land fallow for
agricultural purposes.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective undeveloped but potentially useful
- noun cultivated land that is not seeded for one or more growing seasons
- adjective left unplowed and unseeded during a growing season
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The term fallow, in Agriculture, designates that period in which the soil, left to the influence of the atmosphere, becomes enriched with those soluble mineral constituents.
Familiar Letters on Chemistry Justus Freiherr von Liebig 1838
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The word fallow is said to be derived from an ancient Saxon word signifying to become pale, in allusion to the manner in which the colour of the fallow deer is shaded down from the deep streak of dark brown on the back, to the pale fawn of the sides and the white under the body.
The Lady's Country Companion: or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally Jane 1845
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It had lain fallow all his life so far as the abstract thought of the books was concerned, and it was ripe for the sowing.
Chapter 7 2010
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What lies fallow is as if allowed by the license of the letter under the rule of flaw.
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It will probably be easier to edit it down after it's been critiqued (and has lain fallow for three weeks) anyway.
11/11/07: Wordstock 2007
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From the word-smithy: The word fallow was originally a farming term, applied to land that was left unseeded for a season or more to allow it to build up nutrients and regain productivity.
Archive 2006-09-01 Ed Hollett 2006
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Now I am very glad, for there came to us our new citizen, Joseph, who plowed the portion of Jedidiah's field which had remained fallow from the day of his death.
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It had lain fallow all his life so far as the abstract thought of the books was concerned, and it was ripe for the sowing.
Chapter 7 1908
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"Owd Sammy" had finished his say, however, and having a sensible theory that having temporarily exhausted his views upon a subject, it was well to let the field lie in fallow, he did not begin again.
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The fruits of the earth (though it had long lain fallow, and therefore, one would think, should have been the more fertile) were thin and poor, so that the husbandman had no occasion to hire harvest people to reap his corn, nor teams to carry it home, for he could be scarcely said to have any.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721
kalidas commented on the word fallow
letting my mind lie fallow for a while
January 23, 2009
100000232338334 commented on the word fallow
"There were times to think, and times to lie fallow. Today was a fallow day."-Dead as a Doornail, by Charlaine Harris
May 19, 2011