Fruitless Meaning
/ˈfɹuːtləs/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjBearing no fruit; barren.
adjUnproductive, useless.
Sentence Examples
Let's stop this fruitless discussion.
It's fruitless to press him further.
That is enough. I have had it with fruitless conversation.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
Despite hours of searching, the effort was ____ and they found nothing.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Their search for the lost keys was ____, and they eventually had to call a locksmith to help them.
Word Origin & History
Inherited from Middle English fruytles; equivalent to fruit + -less. Compare Middle English withouten fruyt (“fruitless”, literally “without fruit”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[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."
— 2008, Rowan Jacobsen, “Breakfast in America”, in Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury USA, →ISBN, page 20:
"Here alſo ſprong that goodly golden fruit, / With which Acontius got his louer trew, / Whom he had long time ſought with fruitleſſe ſuit; […]"
— 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 55, page 287:
"[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."
— 1634, Iohn Downame [i.e., John Downame], “How We Must Arme Our Selues against Satans Tentations, whereby Hee Laboureth to Makefruitless the Word of God Fruitlesse”, in The Christian Warfare against the Deuill[,] World and Flesh: […], 4th corrected and enlarged edition, London: Printed by William Stansby [for Philemon Stephens and Christopher Meredith], →OCLC, page 181, column 1:
"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; […]"
— 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2:
"[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?"
— 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 106:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Despite hours of searching, the effort was ____ and they found nothing.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Their search for the lost keys was ____, and they eventually had to call a locksmith to help them.