fruitless
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English fruytles; equivalent to fruit + -less. Compare Middle English withouten fruyt (“fruitless”, literally “without fruit”).
Base: fruit
Affixes: -less
Inflected forms:
form: more fruitless
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most fruitless
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: fruitlesse
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Bearing no fruit; barren.
pos: adj
examples: [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.
gloss: Unproductive, useless.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: The unskilled man’s attempt at fixing his car engine was fruitless.
Here alſo ſprong that goodly golden fruit, / With which Acontius got his louer trew, / Whom he had long time ſought with fruitleſſe ſuit; […]
[I]f we preſent our ſelues, raſhly and vnaduiſedly, as if we went to a play, or to diſpatch ſome worldly buſineſſe; wee ſhall hardly keepe our minds from negligent wandring and worldly diſtractions, which will make the Word of God fruitleſſe and vnprofitable.
The Ways of Heav’n are dark and intricate,
Puzzled in Mazes, and perplext with Errors;
Our Underſtanding traces ’em in vain,
Loſt and bewilder’d in the fruitleſs Search; […]
[A]t length, after repeated fruitleſs trials, he lay down panting by me, kiſs'd my falling tears, and aſk'd me tenderly, what was the meaning of ſo much complaining, and if I had not born it better from other than I did from him?
[W]hatever Preparations ſoever are made for the Salvation of Sinners, and of how long ſoever they are, yet the God-tempting, God-provoking, and fruitleſs Profeſſor is like to go without a Share therein: […]
We wish to speak temperately of what assumes a Russian dress and name, under the auspices of the Emperor Alexander; but we rejoice that the overbearing doctrines of his Minister failed to abash or intimidate the Neapolitans; and we do trust, from the bottom of our souls, that, as they did not avert the revolution of Naples, so they will be fruitless to check the course of that noble regeneration of which they could not debar the virtuous and long-suffering Spaniards, or impair those vast blessings with which it is pregnant to the civilized world.
A large majority of them bear evidence of long-continued habits of fruitless sucking in the deformity of the jaws, which is caused by some portion of the hand being placed in the mouth for the purpose of sucking it at a period of life when the bones were soft enough to yield to its pressure.
gloss: Of a person: unable to have children; barren, infertile.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
figuratively
examples: The fruitless woman desperately wanted to have children.
According to that Cabaliſticall Dogma: If Abram had not had this Letter [i.e., ה (he)] added unto his Name he had remained fruitleſſe, and without the power of generation: […] So that being ſterill before, he received the power of generation from that meaſure and manſion in the Archetype; and was made conformable unto Binah.
gloss: Of a diet, etc.: without fruit.
pos: adj
tags: rare
examples: 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.
Bearing this fact in mind will help dispel the confusion and apparent contradictions that surround us in the field of nutrition—the many individual claims as to the ideal diet, for instance, the high-carbohydrate diet, the milkless diet, the breadless diet, the meatless diet, the fruit diet or the fruitless diet, the high-protein or the low-protein diet, and innumerable variations.
Derived words: fruitlessly
fruitlessness
Translations:
lang: Azerbaijani
word: barsız
lang: Azerbaijani
word: sonsuz
lang: Dutch
word: onvruchtbaar
lang: Esperanto
word: senfrukta
lang: Esperanto
word: sterila
lang: Esperanto
word: malfekunda
lang: Estonian
word: viljatu
lang: German
word: unfruchtbar
lang: Greek
word: άκαρπος
roman: ákarpos
lang: Hungarian
word: terméketlen
lang: Hungarian
word: meddő
lang: Khmer
word: អារ
roman: ʼaa
lang: Sanskrit
word: वन्ध्य
roman: vandhya
lang: Swedish
word: ofruktsam
lang: Thai
word: หมัน
roman: mǎn