Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Not yielding or producing: nonproductive land.
- adj. Not engaged in the direct production of goods: nonproductive personnel.
- n. A person who produces no useful work.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Lacking the power of producing; not fertile.
- Unproductive financially; not yielding revenue; unprofitable, as a mine or a farm.
- In political economics, not causing or tending to cause an increase in the quantity or quality of things of value; not causing commodities to possess exchangeable value: as, non-productive labor.
- n. A person or industry that does not cause an increase in the quantity, quality, or exchangeable value of commodities.
Wiktionary
- adj. Not productive.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. not directly productive.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. not directly productive
Etymologies
- non- + productive (Wiktionary)
Examples
“IHS Global Insight economist Brian Bethune calls it the gold trap: Investors are parking their funds in nonproductive assets like gold that undermine the Fed 's efforts to simulate activity.”
“And if they are focusing on things that are nonproductive, which is what they're doing now, then, you know, Madeleine is somewhere.”
“We're hoping to encourage changes in roadside management practices, how public lands are managed and how people are managing what they would call nonproductive land or marginal land that they might own.”
“These have not had measurable success in the past and do not address the complexities of the present problem: a shrinking and inadequately educated workforce, coupled with a rapidly growing "nonproductive" older population, a persistent and intractable high school dropout rate, and the skyrocketing cost of higher education.”
The Huffington Post: Bernard Starr: How Seniors can save American Education and the Economy
“But as long as the selection of "nonproductive" employees is performance-based, we avoid major morale hits.”
Tom Doctoroff: China vs. Japan: Two Cultures, Two Responses to Crisis
“The Kremlin also spent less and less on its "nonproductive" health system, which was one reason for a remarkable trend revealed by Western demographers: in the 1970s the Soviet Union became the first industrialized country in the world to experience rising infant mortality and declining life expectancy.”
“He isn't in jail, of course; Mars can't afford that kind of nonproductive luxury.”
“Last session, lawmakers changed the Green Acres law so land considered "nonproductive" no longer qualifies.”
“The insurance/pharma/HMO/home healthcare intermediaries in different ways enjoy completely inefficient and nonproductive subsidies.”
“Their universities fed graduates into a nonproductive but high-benefit public economy.”
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