AIMLESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does aimless mean? 

• AIMLESS (adjective)
  The adjective AIMLESS has 2 senses:

1. aimlessly drifting

2. continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another

  Familiarity information: AIMLESS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AIMLESS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Aimlessly drifting

Synonyms:

adrift; afloat; aimless; directionless; planless; rudderless; undirected

Similar:

purposeless (not evidencing any purpose or goal)

Derivation:

aimlessness (the quality of lacking any definite purpose)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another

Synonyms:

aimless; drifting; floating; vagabond; vagrant

Context example:

vagrant hippies of the sixties

Similar:

unsettled (not settled or established)

Derivation:

aimlessness (the quality of lacking any definite purpose)

 Context examples 

Uncertain who were their attackers, and unable to tell their English enemies from their newly-arrived Breton allies, the Spanish knights rode wildly hither and thither in aimless fury.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Finally, in my aimless perambulation, I came to the mantelpiece.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was not Holmes’s nature to take an aimless holiday, and something about his pale, worn face told me that his nerves were at their highest tension.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Few men were capable of greater muscular effort, and he was undoubtedly one of the finest boxers of his weight that I have ever seen; but he looked upon aimless bodily exertion as a waste of energy, and he seldom bestirred himself save when there was some professional object to be served.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)