Definition of "futile" [fu•tile]

• Having no useful result. (adjective)
• Trifling and frivolous; idle: the futile years after her artistic peak. (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.

• "It will cost millions in marketing and promotion, or what I call a futile attempt and waste of shareholder equity."
• "Cape Town after the union staged a go-slow following what it termed futile wage negotiations."
• "Based on this dubious proposition, the researchers bizarrely advocate what they call "futile busyness, namely, busyness serving no purpose other than to prevent idleness.""