plow under

Idioms and Phrases

Cause to vanish, overwhelm, as in The independent bookstores are being plowed under by the large chains . This term alludes to the farmer's burying vegetation by turning it into the soil with a plow. [Second half of 1900s]

Example Sentences

With the onset of the coronavirus, many farmers were forced to plow under crops or dump their milk, even as grocery store shelves emptied out and many American families went hungry.

From New York Times

This spring, horrified Americans watched farmers dump milk and plow under vegetables, but the story of food waste and the novel coronavirus didn’t end there.

From Washington Post

Produce farmers in Florida and California have been forced to plow under ripe vegetables because their supply chains have dried up.

From Washington Post

Cooking allows them to process larger amounts of perishable food as the coronavirus sows chaos in the country’s food system, forcing farmers to plow under crops and dump milk, and meat processors to shut down plants and euthanize animals.

From New York Times

With restaurants shuttered, hotels idled and cruise ships docked, farmers were left without distributors to buy their goods, forcing them to plow under lettuce, dump milk and leave onions rotting in fields.

From Reuters

Related Words

• beat
• clobber
• drub
• edge
• knock out
• outplay
• overpower
• take
• thrash
• trounce
• win