a. Forms: α. (see FRUIT sb.). β. 47 fructfull, (5 fructufulle), 6 fruictfull. [f. FRUIT sb. + -FUL.]
1. Productive of fruit. Of trees, etc.: Bearing plenty of fruit. Of soils, etc.: Fertile. Of rain, etc.: Causing fertility.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter, cxlviii. 9. Tries fruitefulle and cedres alle.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xiv. 61. Þir hilles er riȝt fruytfull.
1535. Coverdale, Neh. ix. 25. Vynyardes, oylgarden, and many frutefull trees.
1563. W. Fulke, Meteors (1640), 63. Clay is mixed with fat moysture, taking his Colour of the mixture with red from white; but being cold, it is not so fruitful as Marble, which is not alwaies so moist as it.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. ii. 7.
The wretched, bloody, and vsurping Boare, | |
(That spoyld your Summer Fields, and fruitfull Vines) | |
Swilles your warm blood like wash, & makes his trough | |
In your emboweld bosomes. |
1601. Holland, Pliny, XIX. vii. Such seeds must be all throughly dried before they be seedow and fruitfull.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., III. xiv. 49. The fruitfull Nilus filling all the trenches to make a plenty of corn and fruits.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. x. 293. The Tree hath usually 3 fruitfull Branches.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 236. Heavn invokd with Vows for fruitful Rain.
1739. Lady Pomfret, Lett., I. xxii. 84. A very steep but fruitful hill the vineyards crown the very summit.
1859. Thackeray, Virgin., xxiv. His estate was as large as Kent; and infinitely more fruitful.
2. Productive of offspring; not barren; producing offspring in abundance, prolific.
c. 1520. L. Andrewe, Noble Lyfe, in Babees Bk., 229. A Bremon is a fruteful fisshe that hathe moche sede.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 153 b. Lya was the more fruytfull, and had more chyldren than Rachel.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbachs Husb., IV. (1586), 162. Some [hens] are so fruitfull, as they kill them selves with laying.
1611. Bible, Gen. i. 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitfull, and multiply, and fill the waters in the Seas, and let foule multiply in the earth.
1667. Dchess Newcastle, Life Dk. Newcastle (1886), 87. A young woman that might prove fruitful to him.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1766), II. 225. The fruitfullest marriage that has been known in our age.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VIII. 43. Nature has rendered some animals surprizingly fruitful.
184171. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 367. The queen bee, when deprived of her wings before any communication with the male has taken place, will nevertheless lay fruitful eggs; but these eggs produce only males.
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xii. 111. That marriage proved happy and fruitful.
b. Astrol. Favorable to fecundity.
1721. Bailey, Fruitful Signs, [in Astrology] are the Signs Gemini, Cancer and Pisces.
† 3. Of a harvest, a crop, hence of a reward, a meal, etc.: Abundant, copious. Chiefly in Shaks.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. ii. 80. The fruitfull Riuer in the Eye. Ibid. (1603), Meas. for M., IV. iii. 161. One fruitful Meale would set mee toot. Ibid. (1607), Timon, V. i. 153. With a recompence more fruitfull Than their offence can weigh downe.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 197. Harvests heavy with their fruitful weight, Adorn our fields.
4. transf. and fig. † a. Productive of (material things), abounding in. Obs.
1629. Shertogenbosh, 1. This Boscage was an euen and recreatiue place, fruitfull of wild Deere, as of Harts, Hinds, Wilde Bores, Wolues, Hares, Rabbets, and such like.
1698. J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 328. The whole Region is very fruitful of Barren Mountains.
b. With reference to immaterial things: Prolific; abundantly productive. Const. in, of.
1535. Coverdale, Col. i. 10. To be frutefull in all good workes.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 337. Golden days, fruitful of golden deeds.
1674. Wood, Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. 284. Martock in com. Somerset, ever fruitfull in good wits.
1744. Armstrong, Preserv. Health, II. 457.
We curse not wine: The vile excess we blame; | |
More fruitful than th accumulated board | |
Of pain and misery. |
1826. T. I. Wharton, in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem., I. 134. His travels are fruitful of information.
1843. Prescott, Mexico, VI. i. (1864), 335. His fruitful genius suggested an expedient.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. 406. A fruitful subject of contention.
1876. Trevelyan, Macaulay, I. v. 289. The main incidents of that Session, so fruitful in great measures of public utility, belong to general history; if indeed Clio herself is not fated to succumb beneath the stupendous undertaking of turning Hansard into a narrative imbued with human interest.
1885. Public Opinion, 9 Jan., 37/2. Prince Albert Victor has probably a long and fruitful career before him.
5. Productive of good results; beneficial, profitable, remunerative. Now only of actions, qualities, or the like; formerly also of concrete things.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 36. And this is fruitful penance ayenst tho three thinges, in which we wrathen our Lord Jesu Christ.
c. 1440. Jacobs Well (E.E.T.S.), 228. Ydelnesse & ese wyth-oute fruytfull occupacyoun.
1504. Atkynson, trans. De Imitatione, I. xxv. 178. Holye redynge of frutefull doctrine.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 316. The fruitfullest thing that can be kept about a Countrie-house is Bees.
1640. Yorke, The Union of Honour, 4. Robert with his followers obtained a fruitfull possession in those parts.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 303, ¶ 4. Instances of the same great and fruitful Invention.
1867. A. Barry, Sir Charles Barry, ix. 303. In the task of suggestion and criticism, which belongs to a commission, it had the opportunities of rapid and fruitful exercise, and he was always ready to meet every need, and overcome every difficulty.
β. 1475. The Boke of Noblesse, 56. Take example to folow the noble and fructufulle examples of the noble cenatours.
15478. Ordre of Communion, 4. His mooste fruictfull and glorious Passion.
1551. Lyndesay, Monarche, 4788. Lat thay yt fructfull fysche [i.e., the Kirk] eschaip thare handis.