fruitless
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fruitless
- /ˈfɹuːtləs/ UK
- /ˈfɹutləs/ Canada, US
- /ˈfɹʉːtləs/ Australia, New Zealand
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English fruytles; equivalent to fruit + -less. Compare Middle English withouten fruyt (“fruitless”, literally “without fruit”).
adjective more fruitless · most fruitless · fruitlesse
- 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
- Unproductive, useless. The unskilled man’s attempt at fixing his car engine was fruitless.
- Of a person: unable to have children; barren, infertile. The fruitless woman desperately wanted to have children.
- Of a diet, etc.: without fruit. 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.
