a. Forms: α. (see FRUIT sb.). β. 4–7 fructfull, (5 fructufulle), 6 fruictfull. [f. FRUIT sb. + -FUL.]

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  1.  Productive of fruit. Of trees, etc.: Bearing plenty of fruit. Of soils, etc.: Fertile. Of rain, etc.: Causing fertility.

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a. 1300.  E. E. Psalter, cxlviii. 9. Tries fruitefulle and cedres alle.

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c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xiv. 61. Þir hilles er riȝt fruytfull.

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1535.  Coverdale, Neh. ix. 25. Vynyardes, oylgarden, and many frutefull trees.

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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.

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1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., V. ii. 7.

        The wretched, bloody, and vsurping Boare,
(That spoyl’d your Summer Fields, and fruitfull Vines)
Swilles your warm blood like wash, & makes his trough
In your embowel’d bosomes.

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1601.  Holland, Pliny, XIX. vii. Such seeds … must be all throughly dried before they be seedow and fruitfull.

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1649.  Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., III. xiv. 49. The fruitfull Nilus … filling all the trenches to make a plenty of corn and fruits.

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1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. x. 293. The Tree hath usually 3 fruitfull Branches.

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1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 236. Heav’n invok’d with Vows for fruitful Rain.

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1739.  Lady Pomfret, Lett., I. xxii. 84. A very steep but fruitful hill … the vineyards … crown the very summit.

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1859.  Thackeray, Virgin., xxiv. His estate … was as large as Kent; and … infinitely more fruitful.

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  2.  Productive of offspring; not barren; producing offspring in abundance, prolific.

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c. 1520.  L. Andrewe, Noble Lyfe, in Babees Bk., 229. A Bremon is a fruteful fisshe that hathe moche sede.

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1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 153 b. Lya was the more fruytfull, and had more chyldren than Rachel.

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1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. (1586), 162. Some [hens] are so fruitfull, as they kill them selves with laying.

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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.

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1667.  D’chess Newcastle, Life Dk. Newcastle (1886), 87. A young woman that might prove fruitful to him.

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a. 1715.  Burnet, Own Time (1766), II. 225. The fruitfullest marriage that has been known in our age.

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1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VIII. 43. Nature … has rendered some animals surprizingly fruitful.

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1841–71.  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.

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1869.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xii. 111. That marriage proved happy and fruitful.

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  b.  Astrol. Favorable to fecundity.

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1721.  Bailey, Fruitful Signs, [in Astrology] are the Signs Gemini, Cancer and Pisces.

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  † 3.  Of a harvest, a crop, hence of a reward, a meal, etc.: Abundant, copious. Chiefly in Shaks.

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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 too’t. Ibid. (1607), Timon, V. i. 153. With a recompence more fruitfull Than their offence can weigh downe.

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1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 197. Harvests heavy with their fruitful weight, Adorn our fields.

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  4.  transf. and fig.a. Productive of (material things), abounding in. Obs.

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1629.  S’hertogenbosh, 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.

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1698.  J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 328. The whole Region is very fruitful of Barren Mountains.

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  b.  With reference to immaterial things: Prolific; abundantly productive. Const. in, of.

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1535.  Coverdale, Col. i. 10. To be frutefull in all good workes.

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1667.  Milton, P. L., III. 337. Golden days, fruitful of golden deeds.

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1674.  Wood, Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. 284. Martock in com. Somerset, ever fruitfull in good wits.

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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.

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1826.  T. I. Wharton, in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem., I. 134. His travels are fruitful of information.

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1843.  Prescott, Mexico, VI. i. (1864), 335. His fruitful genius suggested an expedient.

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1844.  H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. 406. A fruitful subject of contention.

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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.

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1885.  Public Opinion, 9 Jan., 37/2. Prince Albert Victor … has probably a long and fruitful career before him.

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  5.  Productive of good results; beneficial, profitable, remunerative. Now only of actions, qualities, or the like; formerly also of concrete things.

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c. 1386.  Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 36. And this is fruitful penance ayenst tho three thinges, in which we wrathen our Lord Jesu Christ.

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c. 1440.  Jacob’s Well (E.E.T.S.), 228. Ydelnesse & ese wyth-oute fruytfull occupacyoun.

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1504.  Atkynson, trans. De Imitatione, I. xxv. 178. Holye redynge of frutefull doctrine.

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1616.  Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 316. The fruitfullest thing that can be kept about a Countrie-house is Bees.

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1640.  Yorke, The Union of Honour, 4. Robert with his followers obtained a fruitfull possession in those parts.

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1712.  Addison, Spect., No. 303, ¶ 4. Instances of the same great and fruitful Invention.

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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.

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β.  1475.  The Boke of Noblesse, 56. Take example to folow the noble and fructufulle examples of the noble cenatours.

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1547–8.  Ordre of Communion, 4. His mooste fruictfull and glorious Passion.

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1551.  Lyndesay, Monarche, 4788. Lat thay yt fructfull fysche [i.e., the Kirk] eschaip thare handis.

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