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
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
Tod Leonard, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Mar. 2025
Brice Matthews, now the top position player prospect in this fallow farm system, has played better at Triple-A across the past two weeks, but is nowhere near forcing the organization’s hand for a major-league call-up.
—Chandler Rome, New York Times, 7 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for fallow
Adjective
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
Verb
Rams Hill’s previous ownership went bankrupt and let the course go fallow, and the course’s rights to potable water were sold to the Borrego Springs Water District.
—Tod Leonard, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Mar. 2025
Brice Matthews, now the top position player prospect in this fallow farm system, has played better at Triple-A across the past two weeks, but is nowhere near forcing the organization’s hand for a major-league call-up.
—Chandler Rome, New York Times, 7 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for fallow
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fallow
Adjective
-
Waititi never recommitted to Akira and the project has been dormant ever since.—
Borys Kit,
HollywoodReporter,
27 June 2025
-
The group is currently dormant after Argent suffered a stroke last year that forced him to retire from touring, while White and Grundy have appeared only as special guests since 1997.—
Gary Graff,
Billboard,
24 June 2025
Verb
-
Severe storms raked across Nashville and Middle Tennessee on Saturday, bringing multiple tornado warnings, at least one possible tornado, plus torrential rains and high winds all around the region.—
Laura L. Davis,
The Tennessean,
2 July 2025
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Instead, make raking fun again with these nifty hand rakes that resemble giant salad tongs.—
Mariana Best,
Better Homes & Gardens,
8 June 2025
Adjective
-
Entering play Thursday, an off day for the Yankees, the reigning American League MVP had the highest average (.361), OPS (1.180), fWAR (6.1) and wRC+ (221) in baseball.—
Gary Phillips,
New York Daily News,
26 June 2025
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His hope is two off days — Wednesday’s game and the team’s off-day on Thursday — will put him in position to return to the lineup on Friday in Cincinnati.—
Jeff Sanders,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
25 June 2025
Verb
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To stay on top of weeds, plan to hand-pull or hoe down weeds early in the season when their root systems are still small, and then spend a few minutes weeding each week.—
Lauren Landers,
Better Homes & Gardens,
14 June 2025
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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
Adjective
-
With one seat vacant, there are 10 people on the Tarrant GOP Executive Committee, according to the Tarrant GOP website.—
Cody Copeland,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
1 July 2025
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That includes taking over a vacant adjacent strip center, adding thousands of square feet of retail space, more than 600 residential units and a central, green space to be called The Square.—
David Moin,
Footwear News,
30 June 2025
Verb
-
Silky sharks are listed under CITES Appendix II and are considered globally vulnerable.—
Melissa Cristina Márquez,
Forbes.com,
1 July 2025
-
Some Nintendo products remained on the site, but they were listed by independent merchants who sell their goods on Amazon’s sprawling online marketplace.—
Glen Luke Flanagan,
Fortune,
30 June 2025
Adjective
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Meanwhile, the rapid rise in prominence of a US military base in western Saudi Arabia that for years sat idle suggests conflict with Iran had been anticipated, The New York Times reported.—
Kelsey Warner,
semafor.com,
30 June 2025
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While a growing number of listings sit idle in the United States' housing market, as buyers are kept on the sidelines by sky-high prices and prohibitive borrowing costs, multimillion-dollar homes are still going under contract in some of the most expensive parts of the country.—
Giulia Carbonaro,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 June 2025
Verb
-
Before the big race, the track was harrowed, bringing it to a better and drier racing surface.—
John Cherwa,
Los Angeles Times,
7 June 2025
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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
Cite this Entry
“Fallow.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fallow. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025.
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