unproductive

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Unproductive, ornamental lawn: around 40 million acres of it, or 2 percent of the land area of the Lower 48, according to multiple estimates cited by Garik Gutman, program manager for NASA’s Land-Cover/Land-Use Change Program.

From Washington Post • Aug. 24, 2022

Unproductive people waste time because they live in a constant state of incongruity.

From Time • Jul. 16, 2014

Unproductive individuals hostile to mainstream society, ranging from Socrates to Emerson, could have been chemically corrected for their own good to better adhere to the norm.

From Time Magazine Archive

The distinction of Productive and Unproductive is applicable to Consumption as well as to Labor.

From Principles Of Political Economy Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical, and Explanatory Notes, and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy by Mill, John Stuart

Unproductive consumption of goods is honourable, primarily as a mark of prowess and a perquisite of human dignity; secondarily it becomes substantially honourable to itself, especially the consumption of the more desirable things.

From Theory of the Leisure Class by Veblen, Thorstein