Unfertile, unproductive, barren.

Lacking its essential character or quality; hollow, empty, barren, unproductive; insipid. Cf. deaf-nettle n. at compounds 2. Now chiefly dialect.

That is a wilderness or waste; desolate, deserted.

without fruit.

Wild, savage, desert.

Yielding no fruit, result, or satisfaction; barren, sterile, unfruitful, jejune. (Cf. A. 4) Obsolete (or merged in sense A. 17).

Fruitless, providing no satisfaction. Also: devoid of. Obsolete.

Of land: Producing little or no vegetation; not fertile, sterile, unproductive, bare. So of mines, etc.

Producing no fruit; unfruitful. Obsolete.

Of soil, ore, land, etc.: yielding little, unproductive. Also figurative.

(un-, prefix1 affix 1: cf. Old English ungréne, Dutch ongroen, Middle High German ungrüene.)

Not fecund, prolific, or fruitful; barren, unproductive.

Of a cow: That is not with calf (see quots.). Also in to be, goor run farrow. farrow-farrow, barren in two successive seasons.

Not producing fruit; barren, sterile. †Rarely of animals: Not producing offspring, unfruitful.

Of trees: Not bearing fruit. Also figurative.

In undetermined sense.

Lacking elements which are needful or desirable, and therefore capable of absorbing these to a great extent; ‘more disposed to draw from other…

Of a thing, circumstance, material condition, etc.: of, relating to, or indicative of poverty; poor, scanty; barren.

(un-, prefix1 affix 1.)

Not fertile; unfruitful, unproductive, barren, sterile.

Characterized by, or filled with, howling, as of wild beasts or of the wind; dreary. In the Biblical howling wilderness, and derived phrases, the…

(un-, prefix1 affix 3.)

Dry, without moisture, parched, withered. of the ground or climate. Hence, barren, bare.

= infecund, adj.

That does not engender or beget.

Applied to inanimate objects that are sterile, unproductive, etc. (see quots.).

Of land, crops, etc.: not significantly productive; yielding little or nothing.

Not producing fruit, unfruitful, unprofitable; = infructuous, adj.

(un-, prefix1 affix 1.)

figurative. Esp. of a period of time: characterized by inaction, or by the absence of productive activity; unproductive.

Producing nothing.

Of ground: infertile, unproductive. Cf. deaf, adj. 6a. Obsolete.

Of land. figurative. Desolate, barren. Cf. 4.

That does not produce; esp. not contributing to productivity, unproductive.

Not reproductive (in various senses); non-reproductive.

Not bearing fruit: unfruitful, barren.

(un-, prefix1 affix 2.)

Not creative; incapable of creating.

Not associated with the tissues involved in germination.

Of land: of low productivity; not capable of being farmed profitably.