Forms: 5–6 falow(e, 6 fallowe, 6– fallow. [See FALLOW sb.]
Of land: frequent in phrases, To lie, to lay fallow. a. That is uncropped for the current year. b. Uncultivated. † c. Fit for tillage; ploughed ready for sowing (obs.). d. transf. and fig.
a. c. 1475[?]. The Hunttyng of the Hare, 11.
| He fond a hare full fayr syttànd | |
| Apon a falow lond. |
1523. Fitzherbert, The Boke of Husbandry, § 18. He that hath a falowe felde, seueral to hym-selfe, let hym occupie no folde.
1611. Cotgr., Nouvellis, fallowes; ground that lies fallow euerie other yeare.
a. 1689. Navarette, China, in Churchill’s Coll. Voy. (1732), I. 52. The land in China never lies fallow.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 473. There appears to have been little or no fallow land.
1875. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. III. xlii. 457. We are … compelled to let it lie fallow the next [year].
b. c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 98.
| No wonder as it standys if we be poore, | |
| For the tylthe of oure landes lyys falow as the floore. |
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., V. ii. 44.
| Her fallow Leas, | |
| The Darnell, Hemlock, and ranke Femetary, | |
| Doth root vpon. |
1611. Bible, Jer. iv. 3. Breake vp your fallow ground, and sow not among thornes.
1716. Addison, The Free-Holder, No. 40, 7 May, ¶ 4. The Soil, that is worn with too frequent Culture, must lie fallow for a while, till it has recruited its exhausted Salts, and again enriched itself by the Ventilations of the Air, the Dews of Heaven, and the kindly Influences of the Sun.
1797. Mad. D’Arblay, Lett., Dec. He is like a fallow field,—that is, not of a soil that can’t be improved, but one that has been left quite to itself, and therefore has no materials put in it for improvement.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, II. XVIII. 226.
| There too he sculptured a broad fallow field | |
| Of soft rich mould, thrice ploughed. |
c. 1530. Palsgr., 218/2. Faloweland, terre labourable.
1580. Baret, Alv., F 103. The Fallowe field, or that is tilled redy to be sowen.
a. 1627. Hayward, Edw. VI. (1630), 32. The ridges of the fallow field lay traverse, so as the English must crosse them in presenting the charge.
d. 1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xiii. 183. Pastime, like wine, is poyson in the morning. It is then good husbandry to sow the head, which hath lain fallow all night, with some serious work.
1673. Ess. Educ. Gentlewom., 33. Object. Women do not desire Learning. Answ. Neither do many Boys, (as Schools are now ordered), yet I suppose you do not intend to lay Fallow all Children that will not bring forth Fruit of themselves.
1752. Foote, Taste, I. Wks. 1799, I. 11. Then I lay fallow—but the Year after I had Twins.
1827. Hare, Guesses, Ser. II. (1873), 459. Fields of thought seem to need lying fallow.
1842. Tennyson, Audley Court, 77. The fallow leisure of my life.
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, xxxvii. My heart lay fallow for every seed that fell.
