How to Use fallow in a Sentence

fallow

1 of 2 adjective
  • Amend the soil and leave it fallow.
    Nadia Hassani, The Spruce, 20 Feb. 2026
  • To reach this goal, a chunk of around 4% of farmland has to remain fallow.
    Reuters, NBC News, 29 Jan. 2024
  • The third shift, which eludes most mothers for much of their career, is the fallow field of artistry.
    Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic, 8 May 2022
  • As such, many fallow and white deer roam the rugged terrain alongside other wildlife.
    Demetrius Simms, Robb Report, 7 June 2023
  • But some of them may be toxic and are not as suitable for large areas of ground, like fallow fields.
    The Arizona Republic, 17 Mar. 2023
  • Instead of slamming cell doors, concrete and steel, there’s a sedge of sandhill cranes perched in a fallow field.
    Michelle Theriault Boots, Anchorage Daily News, 1 July 2023
  • But the ’70s were fallow; observers at the time declared painting was dead.
    Carrie Battan, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2025
  • That area had once been used for sugarcane farming, according to state records, and was now fallow fields.
    Julia Wick, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2023
  • The rhythm of nature is an extraordinary teacher; there is a time to be fallow and there is a time to be ripe.
    Bhanuj Kappal, Vogue, 15 Nov. 2025
  • Little has been done to prevent fallow lands from becoming overgrown.
    Evan Bush, NBC News, 17 Aug. 2023
  • Those mid-’80s years, so crucial to a 10-year-old kid forming his fandom, were fallow.
    Sean Gregory, Time, 14 June 2026
  • In the distance, across the pitch-black, fallow farm field that separates the two sides, answering volleys rang out.
    New York Times, 1 Feb. 2022
  • The fields are pieced together from properties that went fallow after their owners died or got too old to manage them.
    Hisako Ueno, New York Times, 23 Aug. 2023
  • But for that to work, the fallow sections needed to be resuscitated.
    Nancy Hass Ngoc Minh Ngo, New York Times, 23 Sep. 2022
  • We are all trapped in a feedback loop of championship glory, fallow rebuilding and yet more gold to add to the trophy case.
    Dave Schilling, Los Angeles Times, 16 Aug. 2023
  • The farm system, which looked so fallow a year ago, is showing many of the same signs of revitalization as the parent club.
    David Aldridge, New York Times, 4 July 2026
  • In other words, has the fertilizer been depleted by lying in the fallow ground?
    Dan Gill, NOLA.com, 3 Feb. 2021
  • Its last decade has been especially fallow, with just one trip to the semifinals or conference finals.
    Victor Mather, New York Times, 17 Aug. 2022
  • Villagers dressed as cranes, roosters and mythical lions pose for portraits standing amid crops or in fallow farmland.
    Oscar Holland, CNN, 10 Feb. 2024
  • The picture came at a fallow point in Arkin’s career; much of his work in the previous decade had been in underseen comedies.
    Jason Bailey, New York Times, 30 June 2023
  • Are there any rappers worth talking about in this discussion during such a fallow time for the genre on the Hot 100?
    Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, 6 Nov. 2025
  • The trees choke out other plants, especially in fallow fields which are empty pieces of land that are the forests of the future, Ashmore said.
    Nina Tran, USA TODAY, 30 Nov. 2021
  • That, of course, led to a fallow stretch in which the Mets pieced together mediocrity on a budget for the final dozen years of the Wilpon era.
    Jerry Beach, Forbes, 8 Oct. 2022
  • With fallow lands, the family is leasing some of the land to solar companies to generate income to buy more water.
    Yoohyun Jung, San Francisco Chronicle, 28 Oct. 2021
  • Due to the lack of available water, however, farmers are leaving fields fallow, uprooting orchards and vines and culling herds.
    Richard M. Frank, CNN, 16 July 2021
  • Of course, this fallow year came during the ‘golden generation’ period.
    Michael Cox, New York Times, 6 Sep. 2025
  • Last year, mandatory cuts included the regions' farmers being paid to leave their fields fallow and city-dwellers were banned from watering their grass.
    Sarah Rumpf, Fox News, 17 Aug. 2022
  • Some farmers have already had to leave fields fallow, grow less water-intensive crops or stop farming entirely, per the Times.
    Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Aug. 2022
  • On the east side, the Thermal side, is a gray-green checkerboard of fallow and irrigated fields of grapes, bell peppers and golf-course turf, plus stands of date palms.
    Elizabeth Weil, ProPublica, 22 Aug. 2021
  • Nestled on blocks inside the cavernous dock, the Constellation looked as diminutive as a songbird resting in a fallow field.
    Amy Davis, Baltimore Sun, 20 Dec. 2022

fallow

2 of 2 verb
  • Those users plan to fallow much of their land next year, and are also using state money to drill new wells to tap groundwater.
    Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 16 Dec. 2021
  • District officials say that could force growers to fallow hundreds of thousands of acres.
    Jeff St. John, USA Today, 27 Apr. 2026
  • On one hand are concerned farmers, who say water cuts have forced many of them to fallow hundreds of thousands of acres and could drive them out of business.
    Kellie Hwang, San Francisco Chronicle, 31 Aug. 2021
  • Noah Hiscox, a Coolidge farmer for 44 years, is among the growers who expect to fallow much of their land.
    Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 4 Jan. 2022
  • More farmers will likely need to fallow land — which some of the region’s farmers have been paid to do — and rely even more on groundwater.
    Suman Naishadham, ajc, 17 Aug. 2022
  • Many growers decided to fallow their fields and sell their water to perennial crops such as almonds to defray their losses.
    Laura Reiley, Washington Post, 5 Sep. 2022
  • Like their Pinal peers, these Maricopa County farmers will fallow land.
    Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 4 Jan. 2022
  • Congress recently allocated $4 billion in drought funding that can be used to pay farmers to fallow their land and not use their water.
    Ben Tracy, Andy Bast, CBS News, 31 Jan. 2023
  • To reduce water use and comply with the groundwater law, Arvin-Edison is starting to buy some farmland and leave the fields fallow.
    Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2026
  • The owner of Top of Konocti in Kelseyville, Fowler has around 160 acres of farmland, most of it fallow.
    Lizzie Kane july 26, Sacbee.com, 26 July 2026
  • Hauter, who is also a Gila River tribal member, said the farm would be asked to fallow up to 4,000 acres.
    Debra Utacia Krol, The Arizona Republic, 13 Dec. 2021
  • Their evident intention was to fallow the land and sell its water rights to San Diego, which thirsted to use the water for its residents.
    Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 3 Jan. 2021
  • A week before the meeting, Whorton spoke to water users near Oakley who are planning for a single cutting of hay before leaving fields fallow.
    Mark Dee, Idaho Statesman, 10 Apr. 2026
  • Allowing the wheat to fallow — essentially leaving it unused to prep land for the next crop — or planting something unplanned aren't viable options, either.
    ABC News, 20 May 2026
  • The crux of the negotiations increasingly appears to revolve around how much the federal government can afford to pay farmers to fallow more land.
    Joshua Emerson Smith, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Aug. 2022
  • Or ask fellow citizens in the American West facing tough choices between which crops to give up on and which lands to fallow about how that economy is working for them.
    Star Tribune, 4 July 2021
  • Planned in 1927 as a desirable residential neighborhood, the tract had instead lain fallow for almost 15 years.
    Eric Duvall, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 May 2026
  • As a result, the farmers will likely need to fallow land — as many already have in recent years because of persisting drought — and rely even more on groundwater, switch to water-efficient crops and find other ways to use less water.
    Fox News, 16 Aug. 2021
  • Continuing to cut farm water allocations is on track to fallow a million acres or more of irrigated farmland in the state, causing a devastating loss of jobs and economic productivity.
    Edward Ring, Oc Register, 25 Apr. 2026
  • If, indeed, half of Europe’s population had died during the Black Death, the researchers would expect to see a change from agricultural pollen grains to those of trees and shrubs as fields were left to fallow as farmers died off.
    Jane Recker, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Feb. 2022
  • With rising temperatures and two decades of drought depleting the Colorado River, some Southwestern states are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to pay homeowners to tear out their lawns and farmers to fallow their fields.
    Mark Olalde, ProPublica, 16 Dec. 2021
  • As part of the settlement, Riverview has agreed to fallow 2,000 acres of farmland in the Sulphur Springs Valley to reduce groundwater usage and conserve more water for the future, Mayes said.
    Center Square, The Washington Examiner, 8 Jan. 2026
  • During the last drought, state water law forced commercial farmers downstream to fallow their land while COID diverted four times what its landowners’ crops consumed, an Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica analysis of state data found.
    Emily Cureton Cook, ProPublica, 26 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fallow.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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