as in dormant
not being in a state of use, activity, or employment
the coal mine has been lying fallow since the drop in prices made it unprofitable
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Recent Examples of fallow
Alastair Bland | Calmatters, Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2025
One of the top tactics for reducing the conflict, recommended in the Guidelines for Human-Leopard Conflict Mitigation and by Friends of the Leopard, is to keep fallow fields clean.
—Michael Benanav, Christian Science Monitor, 10 Apr. 2025
Laura Reiley, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Sep. 2022
Compromising probably would require money — perhaps tax money — to pay farmers to fallow their land and governments to build new canals and repair old ones.
—Los Angeles Times, 20 Feb. 2023
See All Example Sentences for fallow
Adjective
Experts agree that an important key to rebuilding salmon runs is increasing the frequency and duration of shallow flooding in riverside riparian areas, or even fallow rice paddies — a program Katz has helped develop through his career.
—Alastair Bland | Calmatters, Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2025
One of the top tactics for reducing the conflict, recommended in the Guidelines for Human-Leopard Conflict Mitigation and by Friends of the Leopard, is to keep fallow fields clean.
—Michael Benanav, Christian Science Monitor, 10 Apr. 2025
Verb
Many growers decided to fallow their fields and sell their water to perennial crops like almonds to defray their losses.
—Laura Reiley, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Sep. 2022
Compromising probably would require money — perhaps tax money — to pay farmers to fallow their land and governments to build new canals and repair old ones.
—Los Angeles Times, 20 Feb. 2023
See All Example Sentences for fallow
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fallow
Adjective
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The cause of the blaze has not been determined, but the company has acknowledged that it may have been sparked by a faulty dormant power line operated by Edison.—
Caroline Petrow-Cohen,
Los Angeles Times,
22 May 2025
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Perhaps the Flyers believe that a certain segment of the fan base that’s been dormant through what has been a mostly incompetent decade will awaken with the return of one of the organization’s most popular all-time players now running the day-to-day operations at ice level.—
Kevin Kurz,
New York Times,
21 May 2025
Verb
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Those waterfowl sure can rake … putting 13 runs on upstart Liberty to get back to the World Series stage.—
Steven Louis Goldstein,
New York Times,
29 May 2025
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Last year the Village Board voted to require Oak Park homeowners residents to bag their leaves instead of just raking their leaves into the street as they had been accustomed to doing.—
Bob Skolnik,
Chicago Tribune,
15 May 2025
Adjective
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But the Lions scored three times in the top of the third off USD starter Cal Scolari.—
Bill Center,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
23 May 2025
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As the Cubs, winners in seven of their last nine, head into an off day Thursday, here are three takeaways from their second straight series victory.—
Meghan Montemurro,
Chicago Tribune,
21 May 2025
Verb
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Wayward rhizomes that pop up as new plants can be hoed or chopped.—
Andy Wilcox,
Better Homes & Gardens,
18 Mar. 2025
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The directors branch is notoriously snobby, which will be a tough row to hoe for Wicked’s Jon M. Chu, who got his start directing films in the Step Up and G.I. Joe franchises.—
Nate Jones,
Vulture,
23 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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Sadly, the Skirvin closed its doors in the late '80s and sat vacant for two decades.—
Anne Roderique-Jones,
Travel + Leisure,
24 May 2025
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While the bureau received an exemption to Trump's hiring freeze and posted job openings this month for temporary workers to conduct survey interviews, more than one-fifth of its leadership positions are vacant, according to a public staff roster released earlier this month.—
Hansi Lo Wang,
NPR,
23 May 2025
Verb
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The 1994 book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and listed as one of Time magazine’s best books of the year.—
Alisha Ebrahimji,
CNN Money,
26 May 2025
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My first step would be to list all vendors and meet with the team to identify frustrations, duplications, and pain points.—
Julia Korn,
Forbes.com,
26 May 2025
Adjective
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So, out of the $403 million payroll, $93.75 million worth of pitchers are idle (not counting Ohtani).—
Jim Alexander,
Oc Register,
22 May 2025
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Built for Efficiency: Save Smarter, Live Freer The Apex 300 leads the class in power efficiency, sipping just 20W in idle mode—ideal for stretching backup runtime.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
20 May 2025
Verb
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The research fellow who met me, Birte, was in her forties, and appeared as if she had been harrowed by her work.—
John Ganz,
Harper's Magazine,
22 May 2024
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Plus, Shin Ha-young is given little to do in the second half of the series despite her effortless shift from warm third wheel to harrowed and weary abuse victim.—
Geoffrey Bunting,
Rolling Stone,
26 Oct. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Fallow.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fallow. Accessed 3 Jun. 2025.
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