Adjective

(en adjective)

Useless; unproductive.

The unskilled man's attempt at fixing his car engine was fruitless .

{{quote-Fanny Hill, part=2 , At length, after repeated fruitless trials, he lay down panting by me, kiss'd my falling tears, and asked me tenderly what was the meaning of so much complaining? }}

Bearing no fruit; barren.

The fruitless woman desperately wanted to have children.

(rare) Without fruit.

* 1923 , The Homestead (issues 386-410, page 33)

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.

* 1966 , Joseph Irving Goodman, Diet and live (page 14)

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.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Producing delusions.

Delusional.

Inappropriate to reality; forming part of a delusion.

* 1849 , Charlotte Brontë, Shirley

It seemed calculated to suggest ideas she had no intention to suggest — ideas delusive and disturbing.

* {{quote-Don Quixote, passage=I opened my eyes, I rubbed them, and found I was not asleep but thoroughly awake. Nevertheless, I felt my head and breast to satisfy myself whether it was I myself who was there or some empty delusive phantom; but touch, feeling, the collected thoughts that passed through my mind, all convinced me that I was the same then and there that I am this moment.

, volume=2 , chapter=XXIII}}