Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Each personal history is sketched with a revealing touch: Robbie, returned from war, had “loitered, not entirely fruitlessly, on the fringes of the London literary world, until coming to Honor via a family connection.”

From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 2026

Amidou Diallo, a welder who has been fruitlessly searching for fuel for his generator, fears the shortages could lead to an increase in crime and a worsened security situation.

From BBC • Nov. 11, 2025

“Get out!” the officer yelled at Sánchez, who reached fruitlessly for his helmet.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 6, 2025

I know that she spent years fruitlessly searching for her birth mother.

From Salon • Oct. 15, 2024

Born in Polish-Ukrainian Galicia, Rabi was the levelheaded physicist who had tartly denounced Strauss’s vendetta against Oppenheimer and had attempted, if fruitlessly, to talk Lawrence and Alvarez down from their starry-eyed pursuit of the Super.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik