to keep ideas fallow
- phrasal verb
:
dejar las ideas en reposo
- The team chose to keep ideas fallow while focusing on urgent tasks.
Examples
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Creative people often keep ideas fallow before returning with fresh perspective.
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I believe we should keep ideas fallow until we have more data.
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Sometimes it's wise to keep ideas fallow until inspiration strikes again.
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Sometimes, it's best to keep ideas fallow for a while.
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Sometimes it's wise to keep ideas fallow until inspiration strikes again.
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Creative people often keep ideas fallow before returning with fresh perspective.
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The team chose to keep ideas fallow while focusing on urgent tasks.
Synonyms
17
3.2
Keep something for later use
11
5.0
To stop work on a plan or project for now
To let ideas grow slowly before you act
To keep your ideas without sharing or using them
Delay talking about an idea until later
Delay making a decision until after you think about it overnight
Antonyms
How Developed
515
3.7
668
1.8
11
5.0
130
2.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
This phrase is a metaphorical extension of the agricultural sense of 'fallow' applied to 'ideas' — combining 'keep' (retain), 'ideas' and 'fallow' (left unused) directly suggests leaving ideas unused to mature, so a learner who knows the constituents can plausibly infer the meaning. However, the agricultural-to-mental-domain mapping is figurative rather than strictly compositional, so the specific usage may not be fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Keep ideas fallow may come from old farming. Farmers let a field be fallow, not planted, so the land can 'rest' and become richer. So, to keep ideas fallow means to leave ideas unused for a while so they can 'mature' and be more useful later.