plow back

Idioms  

1. Reinvest earnings or profits in one's business, as in This company plows back half its profits every year. This term transfers the farming practice of turning the soil from top to bottom to financial enterprises. [First half of 1900s]

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Example Sentences

Treasury pressure on corporations to distribute 70% of their profits as dividends, thus encouraging management "to plow back earnings and increase output."

From Time Magazine Archive

Both the nation's biggest business and biggest taxpayer, Pemex last year grossed $286 million, paid $35.6 million in federal taxes, still had $72 million to plow back into development.

From Time Magazine Archive

Private enterprise has invested $30 billion abroad to date, not including profits that firms plow back abroad each year.

From Time Magazine Archive

This year, with earnings leaner, German industry will not have so much to plow back into capital investment.

From Time Magazine Archive

Scatter manure in the furrow and plow back the soil so as to raise the center at least 6 inches above the level of the soil.

From Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) by Bailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)