useless Hear it!

useless definition

use·less (-lis)

adjective

  1. having no use; unserviceable; worthless
  2. to no purpose; ineffectual; of no avail

Related Forms:

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

useless Synonyms

useless

modif.

  1. Unserviceable

    worthless, unusable, inutile, ineffectual, expendable, incompetent, of no use, ineffective, inoperative, broken, dysfunctional, counterproductive, inefficient, unprofitable, no damn good*.

    Antonyms efficient*, usable*, operative. *

  2. Futile

    futile, vain, unavailing, fruitless; see hopeless 2. See syn. study at futile.


Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

useless Usage Examples

Modifying Another Word

  • utterly: They are utterly useless for resolving any connection problems.

Preposition: for

  • purpose: He'll continue like that for days now, like an animal walking in a happy dream, quite useless for all practical purposes.

Adjective complement with noun phrase

  • render: Filtering messages with an empty envelope sender risks to render these attempts useless.

Modifies a noun

  • eater: It will affect us, because we are the ` useless eaters ' .

Used with adjective complement

  • render: Here, faith is rendering useless the attacks of the enemy.
useless usage examples (more)

The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.

useless quotes

Protestations of impartiality I shall make none. Theyare always useless and are besides perfect nonsense, when used bya news-monger.

-Cobbett,William

Half the sorrows of women would be averted if they could repress the speech they know to be useless; nay, the speech they have resolved not to make.

-Eliot, George pseudonym of  MaryAnn Evans

There are even times when any assumption of dignity becomes ludicrous, and the traveller must, as Mungo Park once had to do,'lay down as a rule to make himself as useless and as insignificant as possible, as the only means of recovering his liberty'.

-Galton, Sir Francis

useless quotes (more)

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2005 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Link to this page:

Cite this page:

MLA Style

"useless." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009

  • Your Dictionary. 5 July 2009
  • <www.yourdictionary.com/useless>

APA Style

useless. (2009). In Webster's New World College Dictionary

  • Retrieved July 5th, 2009, from www.yourdictionary.com/useless

Comments:

Please or Register to post a comment