Adjective

(en-adj)

(label) Unable to bear children; sterile.

I silently wept as my daughter's husband rejected her. What would she do now that she was no longer a maiden but also barren ?

Of poor fertility, infertile; not producing vegetation.

* (1800–1859)

barren mountain tracts

* '>citation

Bleak.

*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./4/2

, passage=As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.}}

Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.

* (1796-1859)

brilliant but barren reveries

* (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)

Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 2, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC

, title= Bulgaria 0-3 England , passage=Rooney had been suffered a barren spell for England with only one goal in 15 games but he was in no mood to ignore the gifts on offer in front of an increasingly subdued Bulgarian support.}}

Mentally dull; stupid.

* (William Shakespeare), (Hamlet), III.ii. ca. 1602

Set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too.

Adjective

(en adjective)

(lb) Empty, vacant.

Not turned to appropriate use; not occupied.

:

Not engaged in any occupation or employment; unemployed; inactive; doing nothing.

:

*

*:Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust. Looking back, I recollect she had very beautiful brown eyes.

Averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful.

:

*

*:“I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle , brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, the worn-out, passionless men, the enervated matrons of the summer capital,!”

Of no importance; useless; worthless; vain; trifling; thoughtless; silly.

:

(lb) Light-headed; foolish.

:(Ford)