Fallow definition

fălō
fallows
See word origin
Frequency:
Land left unseeded during a growing season.
noun
6
1
The act of plowing land and leaving it unseeded.
noun
5
0
Characterized by inactivity.

A fallow gold market.

adjective
4
1
Land plowed but not seeded for one or more growing seasons, as to kill weeds or make the soil richer.
noun
3
0
Plowed but left unseeded during a growing season.

Fallow farmland.

adjective
3
1
Advertisement
To leave (land) unplanted after plowing.
verb
2
0
The plowing of land to be left idle in this way.
noun
1
0
Left uncultivated or unplanted.
adjective
1
0
Untrained; inactive.
adjective
1
0
The definition of fallow is inactive.

A piece of land that is normally used for farming but that is left with no crops on it for a season in order to let it recover its fertility is an example of land that would be described as fallow.

adjective
0
0
Advertisement
The condition or period of being unseeded.
noun
0
0
To plow (land) without seeding it afterward.
verb
0
0
To plow and till (land), especially to eradicate or reduce weeds.
verb
0
0
Pale-yellow; brownish-yellow.
adjective
0
0
(agriculture, uncountable) Uncultivated land.
noun
0
0
Advertisement
The ploughing or tilling of land, without sowing it for a season.
noun
0
0
(of agricultural land) Ploughed but left unseeded for more than one planting season.
adjective
0
0
adjective
0
0
To make land fallow for agricultural purposes.
verb
0
0

A fallow deer or greyhound.

adjective
0
0
Advertisement
(agriculture, uncountable) Ground ploughed and harrowed but left unseeded for one year.
noun
0
1
lie fallow
  • to remain uncultivated, unused, unproductive, etc. for a time
idiom
0
0

Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
fallow
Plural:
fallows

Idioms and Phrasal Verbs

lie fallow

Origin of fallow

  • Middle English falow from Old English fealh fallow land

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Middle English falwe, from Old English fealu, from Proto-Germanic *falwaz (compare West Frisian feal, Dutch vaal, German falb, fahl), from Proto-Indo-European *polʷos (compare Lithuanian pal̃vas 'sallow, wan', Serbo-Croatian plâv 'blond, blue', Ancient Greek πολιός (poliós) 'grey'), from Proto-Indo-European *pel- 'pale'.

    From Wiktionary

  • From Middle English falow, from Old English fealh (“fallow land”), from Proto-Germanic *falhaz (compare East Frisian falge, Dutch valg, German Felge), from Proto-Indo-European *polḱéh₂ (“arable land”) (compare Gaulish olca, Russian полоса́ (polosá)).

    From Wiktionary

Fallow Sentence Examples

  • The hill fields are left fallow for ten years after two years' cultivation.

  • Nicholas standing in a fallow field could see all his whips.

  • The seventh day of rest was parallel to the seventh year of release and of the fallow field.

  • The summer fallow with repeated ploughing was its basis.

  • Ray, who made a tour along the eastern coast in that year, says, " We observed little or no fallow ground in Scotland; some ley ground we saw, which they manured with sea wreck.

More sentences

Related articles

Also Mentioned In

Words near fallow in the Dictionary