plow under

verb

plowed under; plowing under; plows under

transitive verb

: to cause to disappear : bury, overwhelm

Examples of plow under in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web And that has always been Amtrak’s goal, plowing under a big swath of Midtown, now estimated to cost $17 billion. New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 5 Aug. 2024 However, before the bulldozers could move, the streets that were to be plowed under had to be de-mapped and only City Hall could do that. New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 23 July 2024 The curious atala comeback South Florida is home to many imperiled butterflies, many victims of the habitat loss — like the destruction of Miami-Dade’s pine rockland forests, which have been largely plowed under for suburban development. Ashley Miznazi, Miami Herald, 13 July 2024 This unneeded Penn South, plowing under Block 780, will cost $17 billion and probably much more. New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 26 June 2024 Most immediately, there were the troubling optics of paying farmers to plow under their crops at a time when so many were going hungry. Meg Jacobs, Foreign Affairs, 8 Dec. 2020 The first crash occurred in 2016, when a Tesla plowed under a semi-truck on a U.S. route in Florida. Jeremy B. Merrill, Washington Post, 10 Dec. 2023 In one case, expected to go before a jury in the coming months, a 50-year-old man driving on Autopilot was killed when his Tesla plowed under a semi truck. Trisha Thadani, Washington Post, 28 Sep. 2023 Consider all the Florida citrus groves plowed under to make room for housing developments and, more recently, the arrival of a greening disease, Huanglongbin, with 80 percent of the Florida citrus industry's trees afflicted and no cure yet found. Jamie Kitman, Car and Driver, 1 Apr. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'plow under.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1900, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of plow under was in 1900

Dictionary Entries Near plow under

Cite this Entry

“Plow under.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plow%20under. Accessed 19 Aug. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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