adjective
barren
BAIR-un/ˈbærən/
Unable to produce healthy growth or offspring.
Very little grows on the barren hillside above the abandoned quarry.
Etymology
Baraigne meant sterile or barren, with obscure deeper origins. In English, inability to reproduce extended to land yielding little vegetation and, figuratively, to anything yielding no useful results.
In context
you have to do many things to cultivate land properly, it can produce an orchard. But if you don't properly exploit the potential within that field, it might lay barren and nothing will happen.
More examples
- The examination found that the animal was barren.
- Their negotiations produce only a barren exchange of accusations.
- Years of poor management leave the once-fertile land barren.
Similar words
- sterile
- Can imply inability to reproduce or complete absence of microorganisms.
- unproductive
- Broader; describes little useful output without the biological image.