All 6 Uses of
futile
in
The House of Mirth
- Yet the analogy left him unsatisfied, for a coarse texture will not take a high finish; and was it not possible that the material was fine, but that circumstance had fashioned it into a futile shape?†
Chpt 1.1
- Those ambitions were hardly more futile and childish than the earlier ones which had centred about the possession of a French jointed doll with real hair.†
Chpt 1.3 *
- Her rosy blondness had survived some forty years of futile activity without showing much trace of ill-usage except in a diminished play of feature.†
Chpt 1.4
- Lily had tried to mitigate this charmless background by a few frivolous touches, in the shape of a lace-decked toilet table and a little painted desk surmounted by photographs; but the futility of the attempt struck her as she looked about the room.†
Chpt 1.9
- She clung to the note bravely, though its futility was now plain to her in the glare of his miserable eyes.†
Chpt 2.2
- Through this jumble of futile activities came and went a strange throng of hangers-on—manicures, beauty-doctors, hair-dressers, teachers of bridge, of French, of "physical development": figures sometimes indistinguishable, by their appearance, or by Mrs. Hatch's relation to them, from the visitors constituting her recognized society.†
Chpt 2.9
Definition:
-
(futile) effort that is pointless because it is unproductive or unsuccessful