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Fruitless
Definitions
- 1 Bearing no fruit; barren.
"[S]he [Rachel Carson] also warned of falls in which "there was no pollination and there would be no fruit." […] The entomologist Stephen L. Buchmann and the crop ecologist Gary Paul Nabhan amplified Carson's warning in their 1996 book, The Forgotten Pollinators. They predicted fruitless falls unless our land-use patterns changed fast. But few people paid attention."
- 2 Unproductive, useless. figuratively
"The unskilled man’s attempt at fixing his car engine was fruitless."
- 3 Of a person: unable to have children; barren, infertile. archaic, figuratively
"The fruitless woman desperately wanted to have children."
- 4 Of a diet, etc.: without fruit. rare
"The first fruits of the season were eagerly sought after, and everybody was thankful that once more dread winter with its unvarying monotony of fruitless meals was a thing of the past."
- 1 unproductive of success wordnet
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English fruytles; equivalent to fruit + -less. Compare Middle English withouten fruyt (“fruitless”, literally “without fruit”).
See also for "fruitless"
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