useless
adjEtymology
Etymology tree Proto-Italic *oissos Latin ūsus Old French usbor. Middle English use English use Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der. Proto-Germanic *leusaną Proto-Germanic *lausaz Proto-Germanic *-lausaz Proto-West Germanic *-laus Old English -lēas Middle English -les English -less English useless From use + -less.
- derived from *oissos Latin ūsus Old French usbor✻
Definitions
Without use or the possibility to be used.
- This fork's prongs are bent. It's useless now.
- I'm all for opening new stations (Transport Scotland is planning another at East Linton, about halfway between Drem and Dunbar), but they are useless without a decent service.
Unhelpful, not useful
Unhelpful, not useful; pointless (of an action).
- I think it's useless to keep this discussion going. It's like talking to a brick wall.
- I tried my best to make him quit smoking, but my efforts were useless. He now smokes six packs a day.
Good-for-nothing
Good-for-nothing; not dependable.
- Bill never mows the lawn, takes out the trash or anything. He's useless, but I love him anyways.
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
Of a person, Unable to do well at a particular task or endeavor.
- My brother is useless at most computer games, but he is an awesome PS2 player.
- Why do you keep trying? You're obviously useless at it.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at useless. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at useless. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
7 hops · closes at useless
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA