without profit or reward; "let us have no part in profitless quarrels"- D.D.Eisenhower; "How weary, flat, stale, and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world"- Shakespeare
deficient in originality or creativity; lacking powers of invention; "a sterile ideology lacking in originality"; "unimaginative development of a musical theme"; "uninspired writing"
an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation; "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the desert"
incapable of sustaining life; "the dead and barren Moon"
not bearing offspring; "a barren woman"; "learned early in his marriage that he was sterile"
completely wanting or lacking; "writing barren of insight"; "young recruits destitute of experience"; "a novel devoid of wit and inventiveness"; "a life empty of happiness"; "innocent of literary merit"; "void of understanding"