† 1. Producing no fruit; unfruitful. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Exod. xxiii. 26. Ne thi loond shal be vnfructuous, ne bareyn. Ibid., Job xxiv. 20. Be he not in recording, but be to-trede as a tree vnfructuous.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. ii. 58. The trees … were bycomen wylde and vnfructuous.
2. fig. = UNFRUITFUL a. 2. Now rare.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 29. My mouþ … þat bifore was filid þoru unfructuouse jangelingis.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 258. Ryot and dronkenesse, Unfructuous talkyng, intemperat diete.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, III. ii. 65. Speke … þou, my lorde god, euerlastyng trouþe; lest I dye & be made unfructuouse.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, IV. Prol. 19. Ȝour frute is bot vnfructuus fantasy.
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., 135. Be ȝe nocht partakers of the vnfruictuous warkis of wickitnes.
1828. Scott, Jrnl., 27 Feb. We had a final and totally unfructuous meeting.
1904. R. Bridges, Demeter, III. 954. Unfructuous night Stifles her essence in her truthless heart.
Hence Unfructuously adv.
1827. Scott, Jrnl., 6 May. Wrought again at Hoffmann—unfructuously I fear.
