What does fallow mean?
Fallow describes land that has been tilled but deliberately left unsown so the soil can recover its nutrients between plantings. This ancient farming practice gives the word its core meaning: rested, uncultivated, temporarily idle. From agriculture, the term spread naturally into figurative English, where a 'fallow period' denotes an interval of dormancy or reduced productivity in a person's work, creativity, or fortunes. Far from implying barrenness or failure, the figurative sense usually carries a hopeful connotation — like resting ground, a fallow imagination may simply be gathering strength for what comes next. The most familiar constructions are the attributive adjective ('fallow fields', 'fallow acres') and the idiom 'to lie fallow', which applies equally well to a farm plot or a stalled career. Rooted in centuries of agricultural practice yet comfortable in modern prose about art, business, and life, fallow is a compact word whose pastoral origins still shape how readers feel when they meet it.
Land that has been ploughed but left unsown for a season; a period during which such land lies unplanted.
"The estate's best acres were kept under fallow every third year."
As a noun, fallow is somewhat formal and largely confined to agricultural writing; the plural form 'fallows' appears mainly in historical or technical texts.
To plough and harrow land without sowing it, leaving it to rest and regain fertility.
"They decided to fallow the eastern half of the farm for a full year."
This verbical use exists but is uncommon outside agricultural contexts.
Describing ploughed land left unsown to restore its fertility; by extension, dormant or unproductive.
"A fallow stretch of ground bordered the orchard."
This is the dominant sense today, especially in the figurative phrase 'a fallow period'.
The plural 'fallows' is rare and mostly found in agricultural or historical writing referring to tracts of fallow land; the singular is standard in everyday usage.
"Much of the valley lay in fallows that summer, awaiting a fresh rotation of crops."
For centuries, farmers let fields 'go fallow' to rest the soil — and today writers borrow the same word to describe resting minds, careers, and creative lives.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of fallow
Fallow descends from Old English 'fealuwe' (or 'falowe'), meaning land broken up by ploughing but left unsown, and belongs to the Germanic family of languages rather than deriving from Latin or Greek. It has been used for resting farmland since at least the early medieval period in England, making it one of the older agricultural terms in the language. The word should not be confused with 'fallow deer', which likely takes its name from the animal's pale brownish-yellow colouring, a separate though possibly related line of development.
How fallow is actually used
The agricultural sense is neutral and technical, while the figurative sense carries a gently positive connotation: a fallow period implies rest and renewal rather than failure. The phrase 'to lie fallow' works both literally and figuratively. In modern usage the word appears almost exclusively as an attributive adjective ('a fallow field') or within the verb-like idiom 'lie fallow'.
Easily confused with fallow
Fellow means a companion or member of a group, while fallow refers to unplanted or dormant land and related figurative uses.
Follow means to come after or pursue something, whereas fallow concerns land left unplanted or periods of inactivity.