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Glite Dictionary
🏜️ Not productive 🙅 Not generous
ungiving

ungiving

8.9
Land that does not grow crops or plants
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈɡɪvɪŋ/
translation icon : infértil
  • The ungiving soil failed to support any plants this year.

Examples

  • After months of effort, the soil remained ungiving and nothing would grow.

  • Her garden was ungiving due to the drought.

  • The desert was an ungiving landscape, offering little hope for survival.

  • They struggled to find food in the ungiving wilderness.

  • The desert was an ungiving landscape, offering little hope for survival.

  • After months of effort, the soil remained ungiving and nothing would grow.

  • The ungiving soil failed to support any plants this year.

Synonyms

uncultivable
vsungiving
8.6

Land that cannot grow crops

is barren and currently produces no vegetation or useful results
uncultivatable
vsungiving
8.7

Land that cannot grow crops or be farmed

is barren and does not produce crops or useful results
unculturable
vsungiving
8.9

Land that cannot be used to grow crops because the soil is poor

is barren and fails to produce vegetation or useful results

Antonyms

productive
293 3.5

Able to do a lot and get useful results

How Productive

fertile
34 3.2
productive
46 2.7
ungiving
8.9
barren
57 4.6

Surface Forms

ungiving positive

Morphology

ungiving = giving (semi-transparent) = un + give + ing

Formed by negation of 'giving' (i.e., 'not yielding'); applied metaphorically to soil's productivity, which may not be immediately obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Ungiving is made of the parts un- 'not' and give 'to give', so it means 'not giving'. An ungiving place is like dry land that does not 'give' food or life, so nothing grows there.