infructuous, a.
(ɪnˈfrʌktjuːəs)
[f. as prec.: see in-3 and fructuous, and cf. F. infructueux (14th c. in Godef. Compl.).]
1. Not bearing fruit: unfruitful, barren.
| 1615 T. Adams Blacke Devill 48 Even infructuous barrennesse brought Christs curse on the figge tree. 1860 I. Taylor Spir. Hebr. Poetry (1873) 77 It is these [wild flowers]..that because they are infructuous, are spared by marauding bands. 1860 Farrar Orig. Lang. (1865) 62 The intellect..would otherwise remain infructuous. |
2. Unproductive of good results; fruitless.
| 1615 T. Adams Lycanthropy Wks. 1862 II. 120 The wolf living is like Rumney Marsh: hyeme malus, æstate molestus, nunquam bonus... Thus every way is this wolf infructuous. 1822 Blackw. Mag. XII. 526 [He] is verging towards fatuity from incessant and infructuous exertions. 1884 Fairbairn in Contemp. Rev. 357 There are no controversies so wearisome and infructuous as our ecclesiastical. |
Hence inˈfructuously adv., unfruitfully.
| 1876 C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. (ed. 2) 160 Mr. Peacock's cooperage..around which I found I had been infructuously describing a circle. 1887 N. Amer. Rev. July 36 He [the actor] soon found that his art was infructuously employed in obtaining applause. |