Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Producing no fruit.
- adj. Unproductive of success: a fruitless search. See Synonyms at futile.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Not bearing fruit; destitute of fruit or offspring: as, a fruitless plant; a fruitless marriage.
- Productive of or attended by no advantage or good result; ineffective; useless; idle: as, a fruitless attempt; a, fruitless controversy.
- Synonyms Barren, unprofitable, profitless Ineffectual, Unavailing, etc. (see useless); vain, idle, abortive, bootless, futile.
Wiktionary
- adj. Useless; unproductive.
- adj. Bearing no fruit; barren.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Lacking, or not bearing, fruit; barren; destitute of offspring
- adj. Productive of no advantage or good effect; vain; idle; useless; unprofitable.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. unproductive of success
Examples
“The extent of the division became further apparent as a German member of the ECB, Jürgen Stark, bluntly urged governments from the bloc of euro-using nations to halt what he called the "fruitless" discussion over a private-sector role in a new Greek bailout.”
“Frustrated with what she describes as fruitless and repetitive interviews, Ms. Abbas resigned from her Guantanamo post in 2002, and returned to another sales job in California.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Go-Between: Interpreting Life in Bermuda for Freed Gitmo Prisoners
“The results confirm that a gene known as "fruitless" is a key factor underlying sexual differences in behavior.”
“Contentment must spring from the mind, and she who seeks happiness by changing anything but her own disposition, will waste her life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the things she wishes to remove.”
“Contentment must spring from the mind, and she who seeks happiness by changing anything but her own disposition, will waste her life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the things she wishes to remove.”
“This makes it possible to constantly move towards our goals and not get caught up in fruitless opportunity chasing.”
Weather Any Storm with a Flexible Blogging Plan | Write to Done
“George spent another ten minutes in fruitless argument, but without success.”
“After establishing the precise location (or locations) of the mutation, researchers can determine the sequence of biochemical information in fruitless's genetic code — the order of thousands of units of the basic genetic components adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine.”
“Some gene mutations are lethal to flies; fruitless is not one of these, nor does it cause illness.”
“Job-creation programs, you see, were ideologically bad as far as he was concerned because they usually ended up in fruitless dig-a-hole-then-fill-a-hole schemes and only provided temporary jobs that did not lead to anything.”
Lists
‘fruitless’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.