plow back

Idioms  

1. Reinvest earnings or profits in one's business, as in This company plows back half its profits every year. This term transfers the farming practice of turning the soil from top to bottom to financial enterprises. [First half of 1900s]

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Example Sentences

Feeling both self-righteous and ashamed, he decides to plow back into the past, trying to find the man who both made and ruined large swatches of his son's life.

From Time Magazine Archive

By year's end she had managed to run up a $1.2 million surplus, which she proceeded to plow back into the school.

From Time Magazine Archive

As we get toward the end of our expansion program, we will be able to plow back this overhead into replacements for the fighting forces.

From Time Magazine Archive

Both the nation's biggest business and biggest taxpayer, Pemex last year grossed $286 million, paid $35.6 million in federal taxes, still had $72 million to plow back into development.

From Time Magazine Archive

Scatter manure in the furrow and plow back the soil so as to raise the center at least 6 inches above the level of the soil.

From Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) by Bailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)