a. [UN-1 7.]
1. Not productive: a. Const. of.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., I. xix. The use of the passions … cannot be … unproductive to ourselves of that noble … union of science and admiration.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 130. The enjoyment distilling from this source is sure and sincere,… and unproductive of future inconvenience.
1828. Hawthorne, Fanshawe, iii. A few months passed … unproductive of events that [etc.].
1839. Carlyle, Chartism, x. Most paralytic, uninstructive: unproductive of any comfort to one!
b. Without const., or in attributive use.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 124. The gloomy scenes Where beauty oft and letter’d worth consume Life in the unproductive shades of death.
1791. Newte, Tour Eng. & Scot., 383. Shall … the poor … [be doomed] to unproductive labour, in order to gratify barbarian ignorance and pride?
1815. Scott, Guy M., xv. Sampson picked up some other scholars … whose lessons were proportionally unproductive.
1849. Cobden, Speeches, 4. Unproductive services like your fighting establishments … in a time of peace.
1870. Burton, Hist. Scot., lxxii. VII. 73. The king … does not see the use of their attempting to hold a meeting—in Scotland it would be dangerous, in England unproductive.
2. Not materially productive; not yielding crops, minerals, etc.
1766. Parl. Deb. (1813), XVI. 303/1. The harvest had failed, and was unproductive.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 389. A female plant … produced small unproductive seeds.
1855. Orr’s Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat., 222. Unproductive portions of the fields.
1877. Raymond, Statist. Mines & M., 192. They are unproductive as yet in minerals.
Hence Unproductively adv., -ness.
c. 1815. Jane Austen, Persuas., xx. The anxious interval wore away *unproductively.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., 177. Any particular ingredient which is the cause of their *unproductiveness.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, II. 343. The unhealthiness and unproductiveness of marshes.
