lacking vitality or spirit; lifeless; "a technically perfect but arid performance of the sonata"; "a desiccate romance"; "a prissy and emotionless creature...settles into a mold of desiccated snobbery"-C.J.Rolo
lacking sufficient water or rainfall; "an arid climate"; "a waterless well"; "miles of waterless country to cross"
having or put to a practical purpose or use; "practical mathematics"; "practical applications of calculus"
concerned with actual use or practice; "he is a very practical person"; "the idea had no practical application"; "a practical knowledge of Japanese"; "woodworking is a practical art"
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"