Definition of "needless" []

• Not needed or wished for; unnecessary. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Accordingly he repaired to the Hotel de Ville, and gave to the Municipal Council so distinct an account of his measures, and of his reason for taking them, that, though Danton and some of his more factious colleagues reproached him for exhibiting what they called a needless distrust of the people, the majority of the Council approved of his conduct, and dismissed him to return to his duties."
• "Mr Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, became the first senior Government minister to appear on television to talk about the riots - which he described as "needless, opportunist theft and violence" - since they erupted on Saturday night."
• "Michael Kelley, a non-smoker who survived cancer his doctor blamed on second-hand smoke in the workplace, asked lawmakers to put an end to what he called needless suffering."