1. Of things, actions, etc.: Destitute of useful qualities; serving no good end or profitable purpose; not answering or promoting the proposed or desired end; unserviceable, ineffectual, inutile.
In frequent use from c. 1650.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 859. The aged man … like still-pining Tantalus … sits, And useless barns the harvest of his wits.
a. 1623. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, I. i. Let your deeds Make answer to me: useless are all words Till you have writ performance with your swords.
1645. Stapylton, trans. Musæus, C 3 b. The giddy Seas their uselesse drinke bestow’d.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 833. Useless to the Currier were their Hides.
1729. T. Innes, Crit. Essay (1879), 56. An useless as well as an endless discussion. Ibid., 206. It became quite useless towards supporting Buchanan’s schemes.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., ii. (1782), I. 55. According to the useless rhetoric of that age.
1825. Scott, Betrothed, xvii. He … fell … ere Raoul could afford him his support, useless as that might have proved.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xix. IV. 271. The six thousand waggons which had accompanied the French army were useless.
1890. Retrospect Med., CII. 177. Physicians, almost without exception, give nearly useless doses of arsenic.
absol. 1835–7. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., i. (1859), I. 4. What is a utilitarian? Simply one who prefers the Useful to the Useless.
1838. Penny Cycl., XI. 345/2. To distinguish good from evil, the useful from the useless.
b. For which there is no present use.
1745. Transl. & Paraphr., 50. They’ll lay the useless Trumpet by, and study War no more.
2. Of persons: Destitute of competence or capacity; of inadequate or insufficient ability; inefficient.
1670. Covel, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakl. Soc.), 135. With great courage … [he] turn’d upon the Rogues, who were uselesse, and thought they had him safe.
1710. W. King, Heathen Gods & Heroes, vi. (1722), 12. [Prometheus] brought Men out from the Caves where they liv’d useless, and like Beasts.
1783. Burke, Rep. Aff. India, Wks. 1842, II. 52. That Mr. Hastings … had recalled a useless officer.
1810. Crabbe, Borough, xx. 331. I lost my sight, and my employment gone, Useless I live.
1840. Thirlwall, Greece, VII. 180. He … sent the baggage and all his useless people to Melitæe.
1855. Longf., Hiaw., X. 29. Bring not here a useless woman.
