futile
incapable of producing any result; ineffective; useless; not successful: Attempting to force-feed the sick horse was futile.
trifling; frivolous; unimportant.
Origin of futile
1synonym study For futile
Other words from futile
- fu·tile·ly, adverb
- fu·tile·ness, noun
- non·fu·tile, adjective
- un·fu·tile, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use futile in a sentence
Locals threw buckets of dirt on the craft in a futile attempt to extinguish the flames.
That might explain why its rays were so futile when it came to getting temperatures to rise today.
PM Update: Hard freeze tonight for much of the area, then we start warming up Thursday | Ian Livingston | November 18, 2020 | Washington PostAfter a futile possession by the Jets, the Patriots got the ball back at their 22-yard line with 47 seconds to play.
The Patriots’ season isn’t fixed, but at least they avoided losing to the Jets | Mark Maske | November 10, 2020 | Washington PostWithout the ability to know the source of the data, permanently opting out of cookie tracking was generally futile.
Trapping him is futile, given that few big men can contain Walker in space, and dropping too low lets him feast in areas where he’s very comfortable.
Give Boston’s Kemba Walker A Double Pick And Watch Him Work | Michael Pina | August 31, 2020 | FiveThirtyEight
But conservatism now feels a lot like liberalism did in 1984 and 1985, back when I was futilely shoveling away that snow.
I have spent the many years since trying, futilely, to catch up.
Inside the NYT Book Review: ‘How I Write’ Interviews Sam Tanenhaus | Noah Charney | August 8, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTIsrael is quick to laud those who fought the Nazis, no matter how futilely, over those who went powerless to their deaths.
Houston reeled with the effect of it; he gasped, he struggled aimlessly, futilely, for words to answer it.
The White Desert | Courtney Ryley CooperHer shoulders heaved as—futilely—she strove to wrench her arms free.
From Place to Place | Irvin S. CobbA steel door bars the public from this laboratory and it was upon this door that Joy and I pounded futilely for three days.
"And That's How It Was, Officer" | Ralph Sholto"She's having a dose, she is," said a young woman walking up and down, futilely patting the back of a shrieking infant.
Workhouse Characters | Margaret Wynne NevinsonWhen Teddy found himself a pauper he had raged furiously and futilely, and the gallop to the grave went at double pace.
Workhouse Characters | Margaret Wynne Nevinson
British Dictionary definitions for futile
/ (ˈfjuːtaɪl) /
having no effective result; unsuccessful
pointless; unimportant; trifling
inane or foolish: don't be so futile!
Origin of futile
1Derived forms of futile
- futilely, adverb
- futileness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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