as in cultivating
to work by plowing, sowing, and raising crops on
farmers tilling the soil from sunup to sunset
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Recent Examples of tilling
Farmlands to wetlands George Tibbitts mostly farms rice, but his son Carson was tilling a safflower field on one mid-August morning.
—
Jake Goodrick, Sacbee.com, 4 Sep. 2025
The fragrance of dry grass mingled in the air with the dust kicked up by a tractor tilling in the distance.
—Elena Valeriote, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2025
Mother Ezumi then called out the names of four other Sisters who would remain on the campus with the junior novices as a faculty skeleton crew, with the former attending to school administration and the latter engaged in their customary truck patch tilling.
—Literary Hub, 7 Aug. 2025
Jake Goodrick, Sacbee.com, 4 Sep. 2025
The fragrance of dry grass mingled in the air with the dust kicked up by a tractor tilling in the distance.
—Elena Valeriote, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2025
Mother Ezumi then called out the names of four other Sisters who would remain on the campus with the junior novices as a faculty skeleton crew, with the former attending to school administration and the latter engaged in their customary truck patch tilling.
—Literary Hub, 7 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tilling
Verb
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Too many organizations still see middle management as a temporary stop on the way to senior leadership, rather than a critical role worth cultivating.—
Dr. Cynthia J. Young,
Forbes.com,
15 Sep. 2025
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On that same trip, a market of simple tables with buckets of those gorgeous blooms caught their attention and ultimately pushed them to switch to cultivating dahlias, which many Southerners were unfamiliar with at the time.—
Cameron Beall,
Southern Living,
13 Sep. 2025
Verb
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For example, doors open for the Soil to Fork Experience, where visitors learn about farming the Quintosapore way and are then treated to an outdoor lunch with a view of the hills and Città della Pieve in the distance.—
Luisa Zargani,
Footwear News,
6 Sep. 2025
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Merrell Brothers lost money by farming the land to the tune of $3,061.—
Peter J Reilly,
Forbes.com,
29 Aug. 2025
Verb
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From beginning stages of planning, the layout, walkways, irrigation, fertilization, planting varieties of roses and the tools needed for successful rose gardening.—
Ut Community Press,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
16 Sep. 2025
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To minimize risk, avoid planting Brussels sprouts or any of their relatives in the same spot every year.—
Arricca Elin SanSone,
Southern Living,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Renaud Tixier’s movement is a highly innovative micro-rotor movement that features an inertia wheel within the micro-rotor and a ‘dancer’ spring, orchestrated to optimize winding by harvesting even the smallest motion.—
Thor Svaboe,
Robb Report,
9 Sep. 2025
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Add garlic to the garden for more than harvesting the delicious bulbs.—
Mary Marlowe Leverette,
Southern Living,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
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View gallery - 4 images There are folks who get genuine pleasure from tending a colorful garden.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
11 Sep. 2025
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Everyone eventually fell asleep, though a hospital worker remembered seeing Daniel still tending to his mother in the early morning.—
Victoria Edel,
People.com,
10 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Tilling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tilling. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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