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FRUITLESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Unproductive of success
Example:
a vain attempt
Synonyms:
bootless; fruitless; futile; sleeveless; vain
Classified under:
Similar:
unproductive (not producing or capable of producing)
Derivation:
fruitlessness (the quality of yielding nothing of value)
Context examples:
After many fruitless attempts to gain admittance to the prison, he found a strongly grated window in an unguarded part of the building, which lighted the dungeon of the unfortunate Muhammadan, who, loaded with chains, waited in despair the execution of the barbarous sentence.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Then, sitting in Beth's little chair close beside him, Jo told her troubles, the resentful sorrow for her loss, the fruitless efforts that discouraged her, the want of faith that made life look so dark, and all the sad bewilderment which we call despair.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
What the Admiralty was to me that day; what nonsense I made of our case in my mind, as I listened to it; how I saw DORA engraved upon the blade of the silver oar which they lay upon the table, as the emblem of that high jurisdiction; and how I felt when Mr. Spenlow went home without me (I had had an insane hope that he might take me back again), as if I were a mariner myself, and the ship to which I belonged had sailed away and left me on a desert island; I shall make no fruitless effort to describe.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He had just come from a fruitless interview with the pawnbroker, from whom he had tried to wring an additional loan on his wheel.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
