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]

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Example Sentences

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

In Salinas, Calif., a lettuce grower hustled to redirect supply after being forced to plow under unused crops.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

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