Crossword clues for futility
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Futility \Fu"til`i*ty\, n. [L. futilitas: cf. F. futilit['e].]
The quality of being talkative; talkativeness; loquaciousness; loquacity. [Obs.]
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The quality of producing no valuable effect, or of coming to nothing; uselessness.
The futility of this mode of philosophizing.
--Whewell.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1620s, from French futilité or directly from Latin futilitatem (nominative futilitas) "worthlessness, emptiness, vanity," from futilis "vain, worthless" (see futile). Hence, jocular futilitarian (1827, n. and adj.); futilitarianism.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context uncountable English) The quality of being futile or useless. 2 (context countable English) Something, especially an act, that is futile.
WordNet
n. uselessness as a consequence of having no practical result
Wikipedia
Futility or Futile may refer to:
- Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan, an 1898 novel
- Futility (poem), 1918 poem by Wilfred Owen
- Futile (EP), a 2003 EP album by Porcupine Tree
- Futility (album), a 2004 album of the industrial death metal band DÅÅTH
- Futility, a 1922 novel by William Gerhardie
"Futility" is a poem written by Wilfred Owen, one of the most renowned poets of World War one. The poem was written in May 1918 and published as no. 153 in The Complete Poems and Fragments. The poem is well known for its departure from Owen's famous style of including disturbing and graphic images in his work; the poem instead having a more soothing, somewhat light-hearted feel to it in comparison. A previous secretary of the Wilfred Owen Association argues that the bitterness in Owen's other poems "gives place to the pity that characterises his finest work". Futility details an event where a group of soldiers attempt to revive an unconscious soldier by moving him into the warm sunlight on a snowy meadow. However, the "kind old sun" cannot help the soldier - he has died.
Move him into the sun— Gently its touch awoke him once, At home, whispering of fields half-sown. Always it woke him, even in France, Until this morning and this snow. If anything might rouse him now The kind old sun will know. Think how it wakes the seeds,— Woke, once, the clays of a cold star. Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides, Full-nerved—still warm—too hard to stir? Was it for this the clay grew tall? —O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break earth’s sleep at all?The titular theme of the poem is claimed to be common to many World War I and World War II war poets and to apply not only to war, but human institutions (including religion) and human existence itself. Noting the "religious" nature of the poem's questioning, Cox and Dyson claim that "Futility" is a "poetic equivalent...to the famous Tomb in Westminster Abbey."
Usage examples of "futility".
Professor Upham, of the United States Geologic Survey, a man of unquestionable honesty and no mean authority generally, thinks that the cost alone demonstrates the futility of attempting the artesian system.
The poor old man began by saying with great politeness that I really stood in no need of money to escape, that he had none, that he had a large family, that if I was killed the money would be lost, with a thousand other futilities of the same kind to disguise his avarice, or the dislike he felt to parting with his money.
The utter futility of life had laid so low an estimate on the claims of personal safety that Dinny was indifferent to bruises or the hazard of broken bones.
He went home and spent the afternoon in his library over books about the Cotswold country, drearily conscious of futility.
It was impossible to guess whether Emmet were surprised or disappointed at this disclosure of the comparative futility of his visit.
Jews--the men with little silken moustaches--who were coming from concerts at that moment, awakened in him vague but powerful emotions of nakedness, rootlessness, futility and misery, which even the glorious memory of the power, exultancy and joy of poetry could not conquer or subdue.
It snagged between his ankles, and he tripped over it, tried to untangle his feet from it, failed, and--waving his arms in futility to reacquire his balance--stumbled sideways.
It may be de rigueur in academic circles to moan about the myth of Sisyphus and the pointless futility of human existence, but such an attitude is antithetical to the principles of science fiction.
Sisyphus and the pointless futility of human existence, but such an attitude is antithetical to the principles of science fiction.
My lecture on the futility of trying to get homiletic with someone who had been doing this for as long as I had was cut short by the exodus of listeners, who began trickling downhill toward home.
Then, realising the futility of swearing at a mere tool, I went up to the Great House and demanded an audience with Panda himself.
Then, with a bright smile and an omniscient sense of utter futility, I told everyone to gather at home platea burlap bagto learn how to hold a baseball bat.
Its chief characteristic--which is futility, not failure--could not be achieved but by the long abuse, the rotatory reproduction, the quotidian disgrace, of the utterances of Art, especially the utterance by words.
Even as he rehearsed this speech he recognized its futility, but the plug of nothingness that had stoppered his emotions during the auction had worked itself loose, the speedball of failure and rejection had worn off, and all the usual passions and compulsions were sparking in him again.
He saw the futility and unnecessary expense of having three commissioners, and after six weeks in Paris, as early as May 21, he was writing to Samuel Adams to say that one commissioner, Franklin, would be quite enough.