[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being useless; futility, inutility.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., III. iv. § 10. Another Peripatetick definition … which … betrays its Uselessness and Insignificancy.
1733–4. Bp. Berkeley, in Fraser, Life (1871), vi. 217. The impropriety and uselessness of … going to Cloyne.
a. 1768. Secker, Serm. (1771), VI. 69. The Revelation of St. John is accused of Obscurity, and consequently of Uselessness.
1845. G. P. R. James, Arrah Neil, v. The uselessness of remonstrance or opposition.
1889. S. Langdon, Appeal to Serpent, i. 23. These vast monuments of laborious uselessness.
