FALLOW

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fallow mean? 

• FALLOW (noun)
  The noun FALLOW has 1 sense:

1. cultivated land that is not seeded for one or more growing seasons

  Familiarity information: FALLOW used as a noun is very rare.

• FALLOW (adjective)
  The adjective FALLOW has 2 senses:

1. left unplowed and unseeded during a growing season

2. undeveloped but potentially useful

  Familiarity information: FALLOW used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FALLOW (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cultivated land that is not seeded for one or more growing seasons

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("fallow" is a kind of...):

cultivated land; farmland; ploughland; plowland; tillage; tilled land; tilth (arable land that is worked by plowing and sowing and raising crops)

Derivation:

fallow (left unplowed and unseeded during a growing season)

• FALLOW (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Left unplowed and unseeded during a growing season

Context example:

fallow farmland

Similar:

unbroken; unploughed; unplowed ((of farmland) not plowed)

Derivation:

fallow (cultivated land that is not seeded for one or more growing seasons)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Undeveloped but potentially useful

Context example:

a fallow gold market

Similar:

undeveloped; unexploited (not developed, improved, exploited or used)

 Context examples 

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.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

They were trying times those to all save the farmers, who made such profits that they could, as I have heard, afford to let half their land lie fallow, while living like gentlemen upon the rest.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Furthermore, his mind was fallow.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)