Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (a.) Producing little or no crop; barren; unfruitful; unproductive; not fertile; as, sterile land; a sterile desert; a sterile year.

2. (a.) Incapable of reproduction; unfitted for reproduction of offspring; not able to germinate or bear fruit; unfruitful; as, a sterile flower, which bears only stamens.

3. (a.) Free from reproductive spores or germs; as, a sterile fluid.

4. (a.) Fig.: Barren of ideas; destitute of sentiment; as, a sterile production or author.