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Productive of no advantage or good effect; vain; idle; useless; unprofitable; as, a fruitless attempt; a fruitless controversy. They in mutual accusation spent The fruitless hours. Milton.

Not fixed; not durable; liable to disappear or fall away; volatile; uncertain; evanescent; liable to fade; -- applied to material and immaterial things; as, fugitive colors; a fugitive idea. The me more tender and fugitive parts, the leaves . . . of vegatables. Woodward. Fugitive compositions, Such as are short and occ…

The quality or condition of being fugitive; evanescence; volatility; fugacity; instability.

of them fear him. Ps. cxlv. 199. Here Nature seems fulfilled in all her ends. Milton. Servants must their masters' minds fulfill. Shak.

arther. Carries us, I know not how much further, into familiar company. M. Arnold. They sdvanced us far as Eleusis and Thria; but no further. Jowett (Thucyd. ). Further off, not so near; apart by a greater distance.

The act of furthering or helping forward; promotion; advancement; progress. I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furthersnce and joy of faith. Phil. i. 25. Built of furtherance and pursuing, Not of spent deeds, but of doing. Emerson.

One who furthers. or helps to advance; a promoter. Shak.

Tending to further, advance, or promote; helpful; advantageous. [R.] You will not find it furthersome. Carlyle.

superl. Most remote; most in advance; farthest. See Further, a.

The possibilities of the future; -- used especially of prospective success or advancement; as, he had great future before him.

That which is gained, obtained, or acquired, as increase, profit, advantage, or benefit; -- opposed to loss. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Phil. iii. 7. Godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Tim. vi. 6. Every one shall share in the gains. Shak.

Profitable; advantageous; lucrative. "A gainful speculation." Macaulay. -- Gain"ful*ly, adv. -- Gain"ful*ness, n.

Handily; readily; dexterously; advantageously. [Obs.] Dr. H. More.

An under servant for the kitchen; a scullion; a cook's errand boy. [Obs.] Halliwell.

A term formerly restricted to mortification of the soft tissues which has not advanced so far as to produce complete loss of vitality; but now applied to mortification of the soft parts in any stage.

The places which command the entrances or access; hence, place of vantage; power; might. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matt. xvi. 18.

the dimensions of, or to test the accuracy of the form of, as of a part of a gunlock. The vanes nicely gauged on each side. Derham.

Anything worthless; stuff; nonsense; rubbish. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Wright. That servant of his that confessed and uttered this gear was an honest man. Latimer. Bever gear. See Bevel gear. -- Core gear, a mortise gear, or its skeleton. See Mortise wheel, under Mortise. -- Expansion gear (Steam Engine), the arrangement…

all quarto, and soon superseded the large folio of Cranmer's translation. Called also Genevan Bible. -- Geneva convention (Mil.), an agreement made by representatives of the great continental powers at Geneva and signed in 1864, establishing new and more humane regulation regarding the treatment of the sick and wounde…

Of or pertaining to Geneva, in Switzerland; Genevan. -- n. sing. & pl.