sterile

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ster·ile

(stĕr′əl, -īl′)

adj.

a. Not producing or incapable of producing offspring.

b. Not producing or incapable of producing seed, fruit, spores, or other reproductive structures. Used of plants or their parts.

2. Producing little or no vegetation; unfruitful: sterile land.

3. Free from live bacteria or other microorganisms: a sterile operating area; sterile instruments.

4. Lacking imagination, creativity, or vitality.

5. Lacking the power to function; not productive or effective; fruitless: a sterile discussion.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin sterilis.]

ster′ile·ly adv.

ster′ile·ness, ste·ril′i·ty (stə-rĭl′ĭ-tē) n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sterile

(ˈstɛraɪl)

adj

1. (Biology) unable to produce offspring; infertile

2. (Medicine) free from living, esp pathogenic, microorganisms; aseptic

3. (Botany) (of plants or their parts) not producing or bearing seeds, fruit, spores, stamens, or pistils

4. lacking inspiration or vitality; fruitless

5. (Economics) economics US (of gold) not being used to support credit creation or an increased money supply

[C16: from Latin sterilis]

ˈsterilely adv

sterility n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ster•ile

(ˈstɛr ɪl; esp. Brit. -aɪl)

adj.

1. free from living germs or microorganisms; aseptic.

2. incapable of producing offspring; infertile.

3. barren; not producing vegetation: sterile soil.

a. noting a plant in which reproductive structures fail to develop.

b. bearing no stamens or pistils.

5. not productive of results, ideas, etc.; fruitless.

[1545–55; < Latin sterilis]

ster′ile•ly, adv.

ste•ril•i•ty (stəˈrɪl ɪ ti) n.

ster·ile

(stĕr′əl, stĕr′īl′)

1. Not able to produce offspring, seeds, or fruit; unable to reproduce.

2. Producing little or no plant life; barren: a desolate, sterile region.

3. Free from disease-causing microorganisms: a sterile bandage.

sterility (stə-rĭl′ĭ-tē) noun

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Adj.	1.	sterile - incapable of reproducing; "an infertile couple" infertile, unfertile unfruitful - not fruitful; not conducive to abundant production impotent - lacking power or ability; "Technology without morality is barbarous; morality without technology is impotent"- Freeman J.Dyson; "felt impotent rage" unproductive - not producing or capable of producing; "elimination of high-cost or unproductive industries" fertile - capable of reproducing
	2.	sterile - free of or using methods to keep free of pathological microorganisms; "a sterile operating area"; "aseptic surgical instruments"; "aseptic surgical techniques" aseptic antiseptic - thoroughly clean and free of or destructive to disease-causing organisms; "doctors in antiseptic green coats"; "the antiseptic effect of alcohol"; "it is said that marjoram has antiseptic qualities"
	3.	sterile - deficient in originality or creativity; lacking powers of invention; "a sterile ideology lacking in originality"; "unimaginative development of a musical theme"; "uninspired writing" unimaginative, uninventive, uninspired uncreative - not creative; "an uncreative imagination"

sterile

adjective

1. germ-free, antiseptic, sterilized, disinfected, aseptic He always made sure that any cuts were protected by sterile dressings.
germ-free dirty, infected, contaminated, unhygienic, insanitary, unsterile, germ-ridden

2. barren, infertile, unproductive, childless, infecund a sterile male
barren productive, fertile, prolific, fruitful, fecund

3. unproductive, fruitless, unprofitable, empty, unfruitful, unprolific Too much time has been wasted in sterile debate.

4. bare, dry, unproductive, waste, empty, desert, barren, desolate, arid, infertile, unfruitful a sterile and barren wasteland

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

sterile

adjective

1. Unable to produce offspring:

barren, childless, impotent, infertile, unfruitful.

2. Lacking or unable to produce growing plants or crops:

barren, infertile, unfruitful, unproductive.

3. Free or freed from microorganisms:

sanitized, sterilized.

4. Lacking originality:

uncreative, unimaginative, uninspired, uninventive, unoriginal.

5. Lacking liveliness, charm, or surprise:

arid, aseptic, colorless, drab, dry, dull, earthbound, flat, flavorless, lackluster, lifeless, lusterless, matter-of-fact, pedestrian, prosaic, spiritless, stodgy, unimaginative, uninspired.

Translations

عَقِيمُغَيْر مُثْمِرمُعَقَّم

neplodnýsterilní

sterilufrugtbar

steriili

sterilan

steril

dauîhreinsaîurófrjósamur, ófrjór

sterile sterilit...sterilizzare sterilizzatore sterilizzazione

滅菌した

균이 없는

padaryti nevaisingąsterilizacijasterilizuotisterilumassterilus

neauglīgssterils

steril

ปราศจากเชื้อ

kısırmikropsuzsteril

vô trùng

不生育的不结果的不能生殖的无菌的贫脊的

sterile

[ˈsteraɪl] ADJ

1. (= germ-free) → esterilizado

2. (= infertile) → estéril

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sterile

[ˈstɛraɪl] adj

(= completely clean) [dressing, equipment, water] → stérile

(= infertile) [person, animal] → stérile

(= without value) [debate, relationship, statistics] → stérile

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sterile

adj

animal, soil → unfruchtbar; person → steril, unfruchtbar; (fig: = fruitless) → ergebnislos, unfruchtbar

(= germ-free) → steril, keimfrei; (fig) → steril

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

sterile

[ˈstɛraɪl] adj → sterile

sterile

(ˈsterail) adjective

1. (of soil, plants, humans and other animals) unable to produce crops, seeds, children or young.

2. free from germs. A surgeon's equipment must be absolutely sterile.

steˈrility (-ˈri-) noun

ˈsterilize, ˈsterilise (-ri-) verb

1. to make (a woman etc) sterile.

2. to kill germs in (eg milk) or on (eg surgical instruments) by boiling.

ˌsteriliˈzation, ˌsteriliˈsation noun

sterile

→ عَقِيمُ sterilní steril steril στείρος estéril steriili stérile sterilan sterile 滅菌した 균이 없는 steriel steril sterylny estéril стерильный steril ปราศจากเชื้อ steril vô trùng 贫脊的

ster·ile

a. estéril.

1. que no es fértil;

2. aséptico-a; que no contiene ni produce microorganismos.

sterile

adj estéril, aséptico; (persona) infértil, estéril

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

"Why do you stay up there in that sterile place and go hungry?" said the Wolf.

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She is a sterile flower, you know- like some strawberry blossoms.

It really seemed that Sonya did not feel her position trying, and had grown quite reconciled to her lot as a sterile flower.

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What, it may naturally be asked, was the character of the vegetation at that period; was the country as wretchedly sterile as it now is?

Andrew Smith, who, at the head of his adventurous party, has lately succeeded in passing the Tropic of Capricorn, informs me that, taking into consideration the whole of the southern part of Africa, there can be no doubt of its being a sterile country.

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Will sterile be and bare, And look upon the wondering sky

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He early began to lavish his abuse on the sterile grounds they passed, and gave any thing but encomiums on the smoothness of the road they were travelling.

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The mountain seemed, for the most part, rugged, bare, and sterile; yet here and there it was clothed with pines, and with shrubs and flowering plants, some of which were in bloom.

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He had traced through cold and heat, across the deeps of the oceans, with instruments of his own invention, over the inhospitable heart of the polar ice and the sterile visage of the deserts, league by league, patiently, unweariedly, remorselessly, from their ever-shifting cradle under the magnetic pole to their exalted death-bed in the utmost ether of the upper atmosphere each one of the Isoconical Tellurions Lavalle's Curves, as we call them today.

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It stands a little way off the loneliest reach of the Marshall and Harriston road, in an opening which was once a farm and is still disfigured with strips of rotting fence and half covered with brambles overrunning a stony and sterile soil long unacquainted with the plow.

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Fourthly, how can we account for species, when crossed, being sterile and producing sterile offspring, whereas, when varieties are crossed, their fertility is unimpaired?

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Proceeding down along the Popo Agie, Captain Bonneville came again in full view of the "Bluffs," as they are called, extending from the base of the Wind River Mountains far away to the east, and presenting to the eye a confusion of hills and cliffs of red sandstone, some peaked and angular, some round, some broken into crags and precipices, and piled up in fantastic masses; but all naked and sterile. There appeared to be no soil favorable to vegetation, nothing but coarse gravel; yet, over all this isolated, barren landscape, were diffused such atmospherical tints and hues, as to blend the whole into harmony and beauty.