See Also: Fertile(medicine)
Fertile(health)
fertile(dictionary)
fertile(dictionary)
fertile material(medicine)
fertile period(medicine)
Fertile Crescent(encyclopedia)
Fertile Crescent(dictionary)

fertile (iou)



fertile adjective. LME.
[French from Latin fertilis, from ferre to bear: see -ILE.]
(Of soil) rich in the materials needed to support vegetation; fruitful; (of an animal or plant) able to produce offspring; (of a seed or egg) able to develop into a new individual; fig. (of the mind) inventive, productive of ideas. LME.
Fertile Crescent a semicircular region stretching from the eastern Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.
A. J. Toynbee The soil..was fertile and needed only water to make it productive. A. Bevan The sense of injustice arising from gross inequalities..is a fertile source of discontent. Lancet The number of children that a fertile couple have depends on..the efficiency of the contraceptive methods they use.
b. Demography. Productive of (live-born) children. Cf. FECUND 3. E20.
c. Nuclear Physics. Able to be transformed into a fissile isotope by the capture of a neutron. M20.
Tending to assist productiveness. L16.
Abundant. E-M17.
fertilely adverb L16.
fertileness noun L16.