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Having no fountain; destitute of springs or sources of water. Barren desert, fountainless and dry. Milton.

Lacking, or not bearing, fruit; barren; destitute of offspring; as, a fruitless tree or shrub; a fruitless marriage. Shak.

Grasp; seizure; fast hold; clutch. A barren scepter in my gripe. Shak.

Without harvest; lacking in crops; barren. "Harvestless autumns." Tennyson.

elevations; a depressed part of a surface; a concavity; a channel. Forests grew Upon the barren hollows. Prior. I hate the dreadful hollow behind the little wood. Tennyson.

rieties of the common hive bee. Each swarm of bees consists of a large number of workers (barren females), with, ordinarily, one queen or fertile female, but in the swarming season several young queens, and a number of males or drones, are produced.

Not rich or fertile; poor; barren; starved; as, a hungry soil. "The hungry beach." Shak.

Of no account; useless; vain; trifling; unprofitable; thoughtless; silly; barren. "Deserts idle." Shak. Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Matt. xii. 36. Down their idle weapons dropped. Milton. This idle story became important. Macaulay.

procreative power; inability to copulate, or beget children; also, sometimes, sterility; barrenness.

Wanting the power of procreation; unable to copulate; also, sometimes, sterile; barren.

Unfruitful; not producing young; barren; infertile. [Obs.] Evelyn.

Want of fecundity or fruitfulness; barrenness; sterility; unproductiveness.

Infertile; barren; unprofitable; unproductive. [Obs.] Glanvill.

Not fertile; not productive; barren; sterile; as, an infertile soil.

The state or quality of being infertile; unproductiveness; barrenness. The infertility or noxiousness of the soil. Sir M. Hale.

Affording no shelter or sustenance; barren; desert; bleak; cheerless; wild. "Inhospitable wastes." Blair. -- In*hos"pi*ta*ble*mess, n. -- In*hos"pi*ta*bly, adv.

Void of interest; barren; meager; dry; as, a jejune narrative. - Je*june"ly, adv. -- Je*june"ness, n. Bacon.

chness, sufficiency, or productiveness; deficient in quality or contents; slender; scant; barren; bare; mean; -- used literally and figuratively; as, the lean harvest; a lean purse; a lean discourse; lean wages. "No lean wardrobe." Shak. Their lean and fiashy songs. Milton. What the land is, whether it be fat or lean.…

hness, fertility, strength, or the like; defective in quantity, or poor in quality; poor; barren; scanty in ideas; wanting strength of diction or affluence of imagery. "Meager soil." Dryden. Of secular habits and meager religious belief. I. Taylor. His education had been but meager. Motley.

The state or quality of being meager; leanness; scantiness; barrenness.