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useless - 3 dictionary results

use⋅less

[yoos-lis]
–adjective
1. of no use; not serving the purpose or any purpose; unavailing or futile: It is useless to reason with him.
2. without useful qualities; of no practical good: a useless person; a useless gadget.

Origin:
1585–95; use + -less


use⋅less⋅ly, adverb
use⋅less⋅ness, noun


1. fruitless, profitless, valueless, worthless, inutile. Useless, futile, ineffectual, vain refer to that which is unavailing. That is useless which is unavailing because of the circumstances of the case or some inherent defect: It is useless to cry over spilt milk. Futile suggests wasted effort and complete failure to attain a desired end: All attempts were futile. That which is ineffectual weakly applies energy in an ill-advised way and does not produce a desired effect: an ineffectual effort. That which is vain is fruitless or hopeless even after all possible effort: It is vain to keep on hoping. 2. unserviceable, unusable.


1. effective.
use·less   (yōōs'lĭs)   
adj.  
  1. Being or having no beneficial use; futile or ineffective.
  2. Incapable of functioning or assisting; ineffectual: He panics easily and is useless in an emergency. See Synonyms at futile.
use'less·ly adv., use'less·ness n.

Useless

Use"less\, a. Having, or being of, no use; unserviceable; producing no good end; answering no valuable purpose; not advancing the end proposed; unprofitable; ineffectual; as, a useless garment; useless pity.

Not to sit idle with so great a gift Useless, and thence ridiculous. --Milton.

Syn: Fruitless; ineffectual.

Usage: Useless, Fruitless, Ineffectual. We speak of an attempt, effort, etc., as being useless when there are in it inherent difficulties which forbid the hope of success, as fruitless when it fails, not from any such difficulties, but from some unexpected hindrance arising to frustrate it; as, the design was rendered fruitless by the death of its projector. Ineffectual nearly resembles fruitless, but implies a failure of a less hopeless character; as, after several ineffectual efforts, I at last succeeded.

Useless are all words Till you have writ "performance" with your swords. The other is for waiving. --Beau. & Fl.

Waiving all searches into antiquity, in relation to this controversy, as being either needless or fruitless. --Waterland.

Even our blessed Savior's preaching, who spake as never man spake, was ineffectual to many. --Bp. Stillingfleet. -- Use"less*ly, adv. -- Use"less*ness, n.
Language Translation for : useless
Spanish: inútil,
German: nutzlos,
Japanese: 役に立たない
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