All 7 Uses of
futile
in
Catch-22
- It would be futile.†
Chpt 3 *
- Major Major had bought the dark glasses and false mustache in Rome in a final, futile attempt to save himself from the swampy degradation into which he was steadily sinking.†
Chpt 9
- In the daytime they stared at the bomb line in futile, drooping clusters or at the still figure of Doc Daneeka sitting in front of the closed door of the medical tent beneath the morbid hand-lettered sign.†
Chpt 12
- The squadron stood insensate, bereft of everything human but Doc Daneeka, who roosted dolorously like a shivering turkey buzzard beside the closed door of the medical tent, his stuffed nose jabbing away in thirsting futility at the hazy sunlight streaming down around him.†
Chpt 14
- Yossarian and Dunbar both replied while Nately cringed and hunted about futilely for some hole in which to hide and take Yossarian with him.†
Chpt 21
- Deserted by Milo, they trudged homelessly through the reveling masses in futile search of a place to sleep.†
Chpt 22
- Yossarian smiled wryly at the futile and ridiculous cry for aid, then saw with a start that the words were ambiguous, realized with alarm that they were not, perhaps, intended as a call for police but as a heroic warning from the grave by a doomed friend to everyone who was not a policeman with a club and a gun and a mob of other policemen with clubs and guns to back him up.†
Chpt 39
Definition:
-
(futile) effort that is pointless because it is unproductive or unsuccessful