fructify

American  

[fruhk-tuh-fahy, frook-, frook-] / ˈfrʌk təˌfaɪ, ˈfrʊk-, ˈfruk- /

verb (used without object)

fructified, fructifying

1. to bear fruit; become fruitful.

   With careful tending the plant will fructify.

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verb (used with object)

fructified, fructifying

1. to make fruitful or productive; fertilize.

   warm spring rains fructifying the earth.

fructify British  

/ ˈfrʌktɪˌfaɪ, ˈfrʊk- /

verb

1. to bear or cause to bear fruit

2. to make or become productive or fruitful

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Other Word Forms

• fructifier
  noun
• superfructified
  adjective
• unfructified
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of fructify

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English fructifien, from Old French fructifier, from Latin frūctificāre; see origin at fructi-, -fy

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Explanation

A newly planted apple tree can take years to fructify, but when it does there will be plenty of apples to go around. To fructify is to “produce fruit,” or “become fruitful.” Fructify means “to bear fruit,” as in “Soon the orange grove will fructify and we will harvest the oranges.” Fructify can also refer to a seed that grows or fructifies into a healthy plant. More generally, though, the verb fructify means either “to make productive” or “to become productive.” Investing money can fructify medical research, which will in turn fructify with new cures and treatments. You could say that a company will fructify, or become fruitful, if everyone works together.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fructify fructified fructifying

“A perspicacious analyst might wonder whether talk of inflation, recession and other factors would fructify in a slower spending growth,” Moynihan said in an analyst call in 2022.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

“Money,” Cowperthwaite said, should be left “to fructify in the pockets of taxpayers”.

From Economist ● Oct. 5, 2017

“We’re just starting to see that interest in the sport beginning to fructify now … this fight is bankable,” Nelson said.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2017

It will be interesting to see the many wonders which will fructify from the works of these two modern "brothers" in Christ.

From Time Magazine Archive

Use freely all the treasures of civilization, art, and science that centuries have accumulated in the old world, and especially in my beloved Italy; fructify them with your youthful initiation and with your powerful energy.

From International Congress of Arts and Science, Volume I Philosophy and Metaphysics by Various

Those discussions fructified into the present partnership more than a year later.

From Forbes ● Jul. 4, 2013

Maybe it was the peace of land long inhabited, long farmed and fructified by human presence — land where humans and the earth had established a lasting friendship.

From New York Times ● Apr. 6, 2012

It was American statesmanship that first threw out the idea which has fructified in the Dawes scheme.

From Time Magazine Archive

One day, about a fortnight afterwards, this hope fructified.

From Servants of the Guns by Jeffery E. Jeffery

One of these was moreover in itself a curious and interesting chapter of observation, and it fructified, in Hawthorne's memory, in one of his best productions.

From Hawthorne (English Men of Letters Series) by Henry James

There were spawned out salmon on the banks, and the air smelled of fish in a marvelous fructifying funk that is the death that brings new life to the river.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 10, 2023

And “Better Things” kept going, fructifying into a closely observed and deeply felt portrait of one woman’s over-full life.

From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2022

The soil is darker than coffee grounds, inky, sweet and redolent of fructifying forest funk.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 14, 2022

The early Kandinskys, such as Light Form, were fresh and fructifying as spring thundershowers.

From Time Magazine Archive

Or rather, it was a productive and fructifying pain.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

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