fruitless

1. (figuratively) Unproductive, useless.Examples: "The unskilled man’s attempt at fixing his car engine was fruitless."; "Here alſo ſprong that goodly golden fruit, / With which Acontius got his louer trew, / Whom he had long time ſought with fruitleſſe ſuit; […]"; "[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."Synonyms: bootless, futile, fruitless, gainless, idle, inane, ineffectual, inefficaciousAntonyms: fruitful, effective, efficacious, productive, usefulfiguratively

2. (figuratively, archaic) Of a person: unable to have children; barren, infertile.Examples: "The fruitless woman desperately wanted to have children."; "According to that Cabaliſticall Dogma: If Abram had not had this Letter [i.e., ה (he)] added unto his Name he had remained fruitleſſe, and without the power of generation: […] So that being ſterill before, he received the power of generation from that meaſure and manſion in the Archetype; and was made conformable unto Binah."archaicfiguratively

3. (rare) Of a diet, etc.: without fruit.Examples: "The first fruits of the season were eagerly sought after, and everybody was thankful that once more dread winter with its unvarying monotony of fruitless meals was a thing of the past."; "Bearing this fact in mind will help dispel the confusion and apparent contradictions that surround us in the field of nutrition—the many individual claims as to the ideal diet, for instance, the high-carbohydrate diet, the milkless diet, the breadless diet, the meatless diet, the fruit diet or the fruitless diet, the high-protein or the low-protein diet, and innumerable variations."rare