fallow - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
fallow (countable and uncountable, plural fallows)
- (agriculture, uncountable) Ground ploughed and harrowed but left unseeded for one year.
- ✤ Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures
Whilst the landskip round it measures,
Russet lawns, and fallows gray,
Where the nibbling flocks do stray;
Mountains on whose barren breast
The labouring clouds do often rest;
Meadows trim with daisies pied,
Shallow brooks, and rivers wide.1- (agriculture, uncountable) Uncultivated land.
- The ploughing or tilling of land, without sowing it for a season.
- ✤ By a complete summer fallow, land is rendered tender and mellow. The fallow gives it a better tilth than can be given by a fallow crop.2
Adjective
fallow (comparative more fallow, superlative most fallow)
- (of agricultural land) Ploughed but left unseeded for more than one planting season.
- (of agricultural land) Left unworked and uncropped for some amount of time.
- (figurative) Inactive; undeveloped.
- ✤ a fallow period in one’s career
- ✤ After two more homeland hits and a fallow two years, Pickettywitch was parked and junked.3
Verb
fallow (third-person singular simple present fallows, present participle fallowing, simple past and past participle fallowed)
- (transitive) To make land fallow for agricultural purposes.
Adjective
fallow (comparative more fallow, superlative most fallow)
- Of a pale red or yellow, light brown; dun.
- ✤ a fallow deer or greyhound
- ✤ fallow:
- ✤ How does your fallow greyhound, sir?4
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA: /ˈfæləʊ/
- Audio (Southern England): 🔊
- (US) enPR: fălʹō, IPA: /ˈfæloʊ/
- Rhymes: -æləʊ
Etymology 1
From Middle English falwe, from Old English fealh, fealg (“fallow land”), from Proto-West Germanic ﹡falgu (compare Saterland Frisian Falge, West Frisian falig, felling, Dutch valg, German Felge), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡polḱéh₂ (“arable land”) (compare Gaulish olca, Russian полоса́ (polosá)).
Etymology 2
From Middle English falowen, falwen, from Old English fealgian (“to fallow; break up land”), from Proto-West Germanic ﹡falgōn (“to fallow”). Cognate with Dutch valgen (“to plow lightly; fallow”), German Low German falgen (“to till; dig a hole”).
Etymology 3
From Middle English falwe, from Old English fealu, from Proto-West Germanic ﹡falu, from Proto-Germanic ﹡falwaz (compare West Frisian feal, Dutch vaal, German falb, fahl, French fauve), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡polwos (compare Lithuanian pal̃vas (“sallow, wan”), Russian поло́вый (polóvyj, “wan, light yellow”), Serbo-Croatian plâv (“blond, blue”), Ancient Greek πολιός (poliós, “grey”)), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡pelH- (“pale, gray”).
Printed 2026-07-08.
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