Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or character of being useless; unserviceableness; unfitness for any valuable purpose or for the purpose intended.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the quality of being useless

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the quality of having no practical use

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • For all its protestations of a global reach and its prating about the ascendancy of "soft power", when the chips are down, its utter uselessness is so evident that even that does not warrant comment.

    What on earth is happening in West Africa? Richard 2006

  • Huxley declares that the sense of uselessness is the severest shock which the human system can sustain, and that if persistently sustained, it results in atrophy of function.

    Twenty Years at Hull-House, With Autobiographical Notes 1910

  • You who have dedicated your powers of mind and fortune to the benefit of your species, shall you so misdirect your exertions, as to support in uselessness the strong, healthy, and capable?

    I.5 1826

  • In writing about the conflict, I could be a good lefty and give you my bleeding heart liberal chat about absolute disgust for the death tolls and devastation, for the cultural hardening on both sides that these conflicts incur and how that is the real damage, and why, regardless of the long-term uselessness of an immediate ceasefire with little else achieved, we nonetheless must demand a ceasefire.

    The Moderate Voice 2009

  • In writing about the conflict, I could be a good lefty and give you my bleeding heart liberal chat about absolute disgust for the death tolls and devastation, for the cultural hardening on both sides that these conflicts incur and how that is the real damage, and why, regardless of the long-term uselessness of an immediate ceasefire with little else achieved, we nonetheless must demand a ceasefire.

    The Moderate Voice 2009

  • In writing about the conflict, I could be a good lefty and give you my bleeding heart liberal chat about absolute disgust for the death tolls and devastation, for the cultural hardening on both sides that these conflicts incur and how that is the real damage, and why, regardless of the long-term uselessness of an immediate ceasefire with little else achieved, we nonetheless must demand a ceasefire.

    The Moderate Voice 2009

  • CAFFERTY: Lake Superior State University thinks that these words ought to be banished from the queen's English for misuse, overuse and general uselessness, which is why they belong in the File.

    CNN Transcript Jan 3, 2005 2005

  • See also: Defying the notion of uselessness as a sign of authenticity; ‘Saints, Soldiers’: Searing authenticity

    Black Market Kidneys » Sincerity vs. Authenticity 2005

  • But the sheer hatred of what I came to call the uselessness of war gnawed at my soul.

    The Best Short Stories of 1915 And the Yearbook of the American Short Story Various 1915

  • She gave me news of the world, our old world of idle uselessness, which is now one of solid work.

    Man and Maid Elinor Glyn 1903

Comments

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  • Hmm, I suppose I should add this word, no? But I won't. Fight the system!

    February 5, 2007

  • ...sitting meekly at the altar-rail to hear again the published record of their uselessness and of their dependence upon church charity...

    - Harold Frederic, The Damnation of Theron Ware, ch. 1

    July 31, 2008