| 释义 |
infructuous, a.|ɪnˈfrʌktjuːəs|
[f. as prec.: see in-3 and fructuous, and cf. F. infructueux (14th c. in Godef. Compl.).]
1. Not bearing fruit: unfruitful, barren.
1615T. Adams Blacke Devill 48 Even infructuous barrennesse brought Christs curse on the figge tree. 1860I. Taylor Spir. Hebr. Poetry (1873) 77 It is these [wild flowers]..that because they are infructuous, are spared by marauding bands. 1860Farrar Orig. Lang. (1865) 62 The intellect..would otherwise remain infructuous.
2. Unproductive of good results; fruitless.
1615T. Adams Lycanthropy Wks. 1862 II. 120 The wolf living is like Rumney Marsh: hyeme malus, æstate molestus, nunquam bonus... Thus every way is this wolf infructuous. 1822Blackw. Mag. XII. 526 [He] is verging towards fatuity from incessant and infructuous exertions. 1884Fairbairn in Contemp. Rev. 357 There are no controversies so wearisome and infructuous as our ecclesiastical.
Hence inˈfructuously adv., unfruitfully.
1876C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. (ed. 2) 160 Mr. Peacock's cooperage..around which I found I had been infructuously describing a circle. 1887N. Amer. Rev. July 36 He [the actor] soon found that his art was infructuously employed in obtaining applause. |