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Definition of "fallow" []

  • Plowed but left unseeded during a growing season: fallow farmland. (adjective)
  • Characterized by inactivity: a fallow gold market. (adjective)
  • 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. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "fallow" in a sentence
  • "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."
  • "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."
  • "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."