Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Being or having no beneficial use; ineffective: synonym: futile.
  • adjective Having no purpose or reason; pointless; to no avail.
  • adjective Incapable of acting or functioning effectively; ineffectual or inept.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having no use; being of no use; unserviceable; usable to no good end; answering no valuable purpose; not advancing the end proposed; unprofitable; ineffectual.
  • Synonyms Useless, Fruitless, Ineffectual, Unavailing, bootless, profitless, unprofitable, valueless, worthless, futile, abortive. Useless often implies that the cause of failure lies in the situation; as, it is useless to try to mend that clock. Useless is the only one of these words that may thus be applied by anticipation to what might be attempted. That which is fruitless, ineffectual, or unavailing actually fails, and from hindrances external to itself. Unavailing is more likely to be used the fruitless or ineffectual where the failure is through some one's unwillingness; as, unavailing prayers or petitions, ineffectual efforts, fruitless labors. Fruitless is stronger and more final than ineffectual or unavailing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having, or being of, no use; unserviceable; producing no good end; answering no valuable purpose; not advancing the end proposed; unprofitable; ineffectual.

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

  • adjective Without use or possibility to be used.
  • adjective Unhelpful, not useful; pointless (of an action).
  • adjective pejorative, of a person good-for-nothing; not dependable.
  • adjective colloquial, of a person unable to do well at a particular task or thing. Useless is mildly insulting.

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

  • adjective having no beneficial use or incapable of functioning usefully

Etymologies

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Examples

  • My reasons for this will show why I consider the term useless and muddled.

    How I Didn't Become a Conservative 2008

  • The moderate-conservative GOP leader considers the term useless, viewing it as a fifth-wheel after-thought approach to expanding the party's base.

    Booker Rising 2009

  • Early in the siege, the governor of the town drove out what he called the useless mouths, to the number of seventeen hundred persons, men and women, young and old.

    A Child's History of England 2007

  • It's all laid out in that museum, in what you called useless junk.

    A Ring And A Promise Edwards, Andrea 1995

  • On the floor of the long room was a large brasero in which the new librarian was burning up a quantity of what he described as useless and miscellaneous books, with a view to the rearrangement of the library.

    Writer's Recollections Ward, Mrs Humphry 1918

  • Before a month had passed my mother was confessing a dread that the Professor might return and claim the child; she was pleading with my father to abandon what she called a useless and an expensive search.

    David Malcolm Nelson Lloyd 1903

  • On the floor of the long room was a large _brasero_ in which the new librarian was burning up a quantity of what he described as useless and miscellaneous books, with a view to the rearrangement of the library.

    A Writer's Recollections — Volume 2 Humphry Ward 1885

  • Early in the siege, the governor of the town drove out what he called the useless mouths, to the number of seventeen hundred persons, men and women, young and old.

    A child`s history of England 1852

  • Early in the siege, the governor of the town drove out what he called the useless mouths, to the number of seventeen hundred persons, men and women, young and old.

    A Child's History of England Charles Dickens 1841

  • This is what you call useless when compared to Google (et al).

    Techdirt 2009

Comments

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  • Useless, useless. - John Wilkes Booth's last words.

    February 11, 2011