fruitlesse

English

Adjective

fruitlesse (comparative more fruitlesse, superlative most fruitlesse)

1. Obsolete spelling of fruitless
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 55, page 287:

     Here alſo ſprong that goodly golden fruit, / With which Acontius got his louer trew, / Whom he had long time ſought with fruitleſſe ſuit; […]

   • 1634, Iohn Downame [i.e., John Downame], “How We Must Arme Our Selues against Satans Tentations, whereby Hee Laboureth to Make the Word of God Fruitlesse”, in The Christian Warfare against the Deuill[,] World and Flesh:  […], 4th corrected and enlarged edition, London: Printed by William Stansby [for Philemon Stephens and Christopher Meredith], →OCLC, page 181, column 1:

     [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.

   • 1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter V.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 192:

     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.