bear fruit

bear fruit

1. Literally, to produce fruit, as of certain trees and plants. Now that the tree in our back yard is bearing fruit, the kids love picking apples from it.
2. By extension, to yield desired results. Donna is convinced that this plan will bear fruit if we just keep working on it, but it's been a year—the rest of us are officially skeptical.
See also: bear, fruit
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

bear fruit

 
1. Lit. [for a plant or tree] to yield fruit. Our apple tree didn't bear fruit this year.
2. Fig. to yield results. I hope your new plan bears fruit. We've had many good ideas, but none of them has borne fruit.
See also: bear, fruit
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

bear fruit

Yield results, have a favorable outcome, as in This new idea of his is bound to bear fruit. This metaphoric term, first recorded in 1879, transfers the production of fruit by a tree or plant to other kinds of useful yield.
See also: bear, fruit
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

bear fruit

FORMAL
COMMON If an action bears fruit, it produces good results. The strategy of concentrating the company's efforts on a smaller range of businesses is now beginning to bear fruit. It remains to be seen whether the economic reforms will bear fruit.
See also: bear, fruit
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

bear fruit

have good results.
This expression is a biblical metaphor, found, for example, in Matthew 13:23: ‘But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty’.
See also: bear, fruit
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

bear ˈfruit

have the desired result; be successful: The tireless efforts of campaigners have finally borne fruit and the prisoners are due to be released tomorrow.
See also: bear, fruit
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • fruit up
  • hen fruit
  • fruit loop
  • known
  • the fruit of something
  • the fruit(s) of (something)
  • under cover of (something)
  • under cover of something
  • he that would eat the fruit must climb the tree
  • plant pears for your heirs
References in periodicals archive
Of Bristol they write that 'as a pineapple can be persuaded to bear fruit in a hot-bed of manure, so the Rococo flourished unexpectedly in that unlikely city'.
AN INSULAR ROCOCO: architecture, politics and society in Ireland and Britain, 1710-1770
The country is one of the poorest in the world, and host to 400,000 refugees from other countries in the region, but economic reforms are beginning to bear fruit. A major obstacle is rampant corruption.
Tanzania tackles corruption
If you think the stock market will continue to bear fruit, you may be able to reap a bountiful harvest by buying equities on margin.
How to buy on margin
Awareness of Individual Savings Accounts has risen in the past three months, suggesting that the industry's ad campaign is beginning to bear fruit.
Isas look ripe for plucking
MacGillivray continue to bear fruit, multihued portraits of almost the entire sky may be available on CD-ROMs by the turn of the century.
Coloring the cosmos; the sky's the limit
If states continue to pass such legislation, which seems likely, they'll subvert private-sector efforts to reform the health-care system, just as these efforts are beginning to bear fruit.
A government association: vigorous competition
A company spokesman says this work should bear fruit later this year with the introduction of an improved line of Exolit IFRs.
Intumescents gain interest
It can bear fruit the second year; other kinds take five or six years.
Fuzzy or not? Now you can choose which kind of kiwi fruit to grow
The minister said that the PTI government put the country on the right direction and added that soon their policies will bear fruit.
University for technical education to be established in Islamabad: Shafqat
LAHORE -- Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda has said that the nation will have to take bitter pill and vowed that the policies which his government had initiated would soon bear fruit.
Nation will have to take bitter pill before our policies bear fruit: Faisal Vawda
She said days are not far when PTI government hard work, good intention and commitment to nation will bear fruit and Pakistan will be ranked among the stable and robust economies of the world.
PPP balloon deflates after Iqama of Bilawal Bhutto surfaces: PTI
In so doing, we improve our capacity to grow and bear fruit as hearers of God's word.
The explanation of the parable of the sower
Our efforts for transforming public deprivations and pains into happiness and joys have bear fruit and the public welfare projects are an example of its own with regard to their advantages for the public.
PML-N has done remarkable job: CM
He added that in his plantation he cut down the male pili trees because they got bigger but unproductive and kept the female trees which continuously bear fruit.
'The tree of hope' offers good, stable income
Summary: A bid to expand the opposition's delegation at next week's scheduled Geneva II peace talks won't have enough time to bear fruit, according to prominent opposition figure Haitham Mann.
Opposition won't expand before Geneva: Mannaa