useless

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Being or having no beneficial use; futile or ineffective.
  2. adjective Incapable of functioning or assisting; ineffectual: He panics easily and is useless in an emergency. See Synonyms at futile.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples

  • Is it not useless, after all, to hope for a more perfect unification of the dialects of the langue d'oc, and, if unification is the aim, does not logical reasoning lead to the conclusion that the French language already exists, perfectly unified, and absolutely necessary? —  Frederic Mistral
  • But I confess I do shrink from encountering an undefined period of bodily and mental imbecility; of being helpless, useless, a burden. —  Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character
  • This heat makes me useless, and constrains me to lie like a log. —  The Last Journals of David Livingstone from 1865 to His Death
  • Praying is evidently useless, and should be, as it is almost always selfish — for our benefit, or our families, or our nation. — —  Alfred Russel Wallace Letters and Reminiscences
  • Ordinarily he flung himself into his work with the more ardour; he had gone into the reckless gamble with Gleeson because as he neared Birralong it came to him that the gold he had found was useless to him in the face of Ailleen's coldness--useless, that is, for the purpose he had at first desired it, for the purchase of a home to offer to her The question Mrs. Taylor had asked him, and the introduction of Dickson's name before the mention of Ailleen, re-awakened not only the smart he was suffering from, but also a suspicion which had come into his mind--a suspicion that Dickson and his wealth were not entirely dissociated from Ailleen's change of manner. —  Colonial Born A tale of the Queensland bush
 

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Useless has been looked up 462 times, favorited once, listed 12 times, and commented on 0 times.

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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

foolish ·  unnecessary ·  dangerous ·  mere ·  worthless ·  futile ·  miserable
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

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/ˈjuslɛs/
by American Heritage

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