What is "futilely"

Usage examples of "futilely".

But he had only a few more seconds to pull off something miraculous and even as these vertiginous thoughts whirled through his shocked brain and he jerked futilely at the controls, the fire flared all along the broken wing, and in the earphones he heard Cornett screaming something frightened but incomprehensible.

Donough began defending his position, Mac Liag tried to outtalk them both, and Teigue struggled futilely to take charge of the situation.

Bobbie Jo, her mind and spirit, were linked to an underpowered backup drone drifting slowly over eastern Newark, futilely, it now seemed.

Galen think his quarry on the move, making the Adepts cast their thunderbolts futilely into the street near the Northgate tower.

I sat down gingerly on a couch, put my head in my hands, and tried futilely to figure out why someone wanted to kill me for discovering that a harmless shipment of legal vaccines was exactly what it was supposed to be.

I remember nothing of it apart from a recurring dread (it came at hourly intervals) that the drug had blanked more memory than I would ever recover, a sense of irretrievable loss akin to those dreams in which one searches futilely for the missing wallet, watch, prized possession, or sense of self.

For seven days Ay-mad tried to take it, but all his warriors could do was to beat futilely upon the great wooden gates while the defending warriors dropped heavy stones on their heads.

While Keth, doing his part again, argued angrily and futilely with Barrand and Nelt, she'd been driving out a full-sweep search probe, sensitized to Osselin's mind patterns.

He looked at Dove, who was futilely trying to hold a straight face.

He had drawn his skian and was slashing futilely at the Vectors, who gently drifted out of reach on every air current engendered by his vigorous movements.

He waved his skinny claw-like hands futilely, as the two altereds crept into the grove of cedars toward the far end of the park.

Peilanne gathered the dining knives back up and rubbed futilely at the scars in the bread board.

He'd climbed the companion ladders with tremendous effort, gasping futilely for breath.

The Ferengi bobbed through the mobile vulgus with consumate grace, leaving Cadet Crusher trailing futilely in his wake.

He has jammed a wooden match down into the bowl of a corncob pipe and is puffing away futilely.