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Showing results for plow under. Search instead for plow+under.
Synonyms

plow under

Idioms  

  1. 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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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 • Mar. 25, 2021

Large scale corporate operations will deny access to hunters and for certain plow under the grassed waterways and seasonally inundated wetland in favor of maximizing production.

From New York Times • Jun. 12, 2016

It is cooking with imperfect vegetables that farmers might otherwise plow under.

From New York Times • Jul. 7, 2015

Since all pesticides approved for use in California have been ineffective against the bug, the best advice agriculture officials can give is for farmers to plow under devastated fields, denying the pests their food sources.

From Time Magazine Archive

We use some indirectly, as we grow clover to plow under, and usually give at that time a good dressing of lime.

From Success with Small Fruits by Roe, Edward Payson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.