producing little or no crop; barren; unfruitful; unproductive; not fertile; as, sterile land; a sterile desert; a sterile year.-incapable of reproduction; unfitted for reproduction of offspring; not able to germinate or bear fruit; unfruitful; as, a sterile flower, which bears only stamens.-free from reproductive spores or germs; as, a sterile fluid.-fig.: barren of ideas; destitute of sentiment; as, a sterile production or author.