a. [ad. L. jējūn-us fasting.]
† 1. Without food, fasting; hungry. Obs.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., II. ii. § 2 (1622), 199. When their Bellies are distended, and full; yet their appetites are ieiune, and emptie.
1670. J. Beale, in Phil. Trans., V. 1162. Poor and jejune people, who are accustomed to drinks almost as weak as water.
a. 1754. J. M‘Laurin, Serm. & Ess. (1755), 156. That cold, jejune, lifeless frame.
2. Deficient in nourishing or substantial (physical) qualities; thin, attenuated, scanty; meager, unsatisfying; (of land) poor, barren.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xxi. 162. Jejune or limpid water, and nearer the simplicity of its Element.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., V. 146. Those jejune and insipid morsels.
1696. Whiston, The. Earth, IV. (1722), 352. They might never see such a Poor, Jejune, and Degenerate State of the Vegetable Kingdom.
1708. J. Philips, Cyder, I. 54. Not from the sable ground expect success, Nor from cretaceous, stubborn and jejune.
1833. J. Rennie, Alph. Angling, 5. That they [fish] are best pleased with such jejune diet may easily be confuted.
3. Unsatisfying to the mind or soul; dull, flat, insipid, bald, dry, uninteresting; meagre, scanty, thin, poor; wanting in substance or solidity. Said of thought, feeling, action, etc., and esp. of speech or writing; also transf. of the speaker or writer. (The prevailing sense.)
1615. [implied in JEJUNELY].
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, II. iii. I. xiii. Jejune exilities.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., ii. 41. A forced and jejune devotion, void of inward life and love.
1656–63. Bullokar, Eng. Expos., s.v., When we say of an Oration, Sermon, or any Discourse, that it is Jejune, we mean Sorry, paltry, and very dangerous stuff.
1671. R. Bohun, Wind, 49. Have employed so much time in such empty and jejune speculations.
c. 1705. Berkeley, Comm.-pl. Bk., Wks. 1871, IV. 478. The short jejune way in mathematiques will not do in metaphysiques.
1758. Blackstone, in Comm., I. 16. He gives what seems … a very jejune and unsatisfactory reason.
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages, iii. I. (1872), I. 395. The chroniclers of those times are few and jejune.
† 4. Jejune gut: = JEJUNUM. Obs.
1696. Phillips (ed. 5), Jejune Gut, the second of the small Guts, so called, because it is frequently empty.
