All 10 Uses of
futile
in
Of Human Bondage
- it distressed him to realise that his magnificent struggle was futile:
Chpt 47-48 *futile = pointless because it is unproductive or unsuccessful
- He had worked very hard, it would be too cruel if all that industry were futile.†
Chpt 51-52
- Like many another he discovered that crossing the Channel makes things which had seemed important singularly futile.†
Chpt 51-52
- He seemed to himself absurd and futile.†
Chpt 59-60
- Why, merely the futility of regret.†
Chpt 67-68
- He thought of half a dozen things to say, but they seemed futile.†
Chpt 81-82
- What troubled him was the absolute futility of the life which had just ended.†
Chpt 85-86
- His death had been as futile as his life.†
Chpt 105-106
- Though he had told himself so often that regret was futile, there were certain things that came back to him occasionally and worried him.†
Chpt 109-110
- In a few years these too, others taking their place, would stand alien as he stood; but the reflection brought him no solace; it merely impressed upon him the futility of human existence.†
Chpt 111-112
Definition:
-
(futile) effort that is pointless because it is unproductive or unsuccessful