fallow
1 Americanadjective
-
(of land) plowed and left unseeded for a season or more; uncultivated.
-
not in use; inactive.
My creative energies have lain fallow this year.
noun
verb (used with object)
adjective
adjective
-
(of land) left unseeded after being ploughed and harrowed to regain fertility for a crop
-
(of an idea, state of mind, etc) undeveloped or inactive, but potentially useful
noun
verb
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
has fallowedperfect 3rd person singular
-
have fallowedperfect
-
am fallowingprogressive 1st person singular
-
has been fallowingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
-
have been fallowingperfect progressive
-
fallowingparticiple
-
are fallowingprogressive
-
is fallowingprogressive 3rd person singular
-
fallowssingular 3rd person
Past
-
had fallowedperfect
-
was fallowingprogressive singular
-
fallowedparticiple
-
fallowedsimple
-
had been fallowingperfect progressive
-
were fallowingprogressive plural
Future
Etymology
Origin of fallow1
1275–1325; Middle English falwe; compare Old English fealga, plural of *fealh, as gloss of Medieval Latin occas harrows
Origin of fallow2
before 1000; Middle English fal ( o ) we, Old English fealu; cognate with German falb
Explanation
Something that is fallow is left unused. If you’re smart but lazy, someone might say you have a fallow mind. We use the word to talk about any unused resource, it started as a work about land. Fallow comes from the old English word for plowing, and refers to the practice of leaving fields unplowed in rotation — when a field lies fallow, the soil regains nutrients that are sucked up by over-planting.
Vocabulary lists containing fallow
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Down on the Farm
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
FALLOW, land ploughed and tilled, but left unsown, usually for a year, in order, on the one hand, to disintegrate, a�rate and free it from weeds, and, on the other, to allow it to recuperate.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
