FUTILE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does futile mean? 

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

1. producing no result or effect

2. unproductive of success

  Familiarity information: FUTILE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FUTILE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Producing no result or effect

Synonyms:

futile; ineffectual; meaningless; otiose; unavailing

Context example:

an unavailing attempt

Similar:

useless (having no beneficial use or incapable of functioning usefully)

Derivation:

futility (uselessness as a consequence of having no practical result)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Unproductive of success

Synonyms:

bootless; fruitless; futile; sleeveless; vain

Context example:

a vain attempt

Similar:

unproductive (not producing or capable of producing)

 Context examples 

My last glance showed me the unconscious Summerlee, most futile of sentinels, still nodding away like a queer mechanical toy in front of the smouldering fire.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When b-lap is activated by NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase-1 (NQO1) this agent creates a futile oxidoreduction, generating highly reactive oxygen species (ROS) that results in DNA damage.

(Beta-lapachone Prodrug ARQ 761, NCI Thesaurus)

Beta-lapachone (b-lap) is bioactivated by NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase-1 (NQO1), creating a futile oxidoreduction that generates high levels of superoxide.

(Lapachone, NCI Thesaurus)

It was very different when the masters of the science sought immortality and power; such views, although futile, were grand; but now the scene was changed.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

They were howling at the very gates, and sometimes he and the Factor paused from the game to listen and laugh at the futile efforts of the wolves to get in.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I could see nothing recorded in the shape of crime which was not commonplace and futile.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When Madge had said that it was too bad, he made another futile effort to go.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

François swore strange barbarous oaths, and stamped the snow in futile rage, and tore his hair.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Brissenden had been wholly right in his judgment of the magazines, and he, Martin, had spent arduous and futile years in order to find it out for himself.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Two simultaneous exchanges with the left made a clap like a pistol-shot, and then as Harrison rushed in for a fall, Wilson slipped him, and over went my old friend upon his face, partly from the impetus of his own futile attack, and partly from a swinging half-arm blow which the west-countryman brought home upon his ear as he passed.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)