useless

«useless» in Mova's judaism dictionary: Not useful; not able to do its job: "A broken umbrella is… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (useless, more useless, most useless)

meaning for a pupil

1) Not useful; not able to do its job: "A broken umbrella is useless." tree →

2) Having no effect: "It's useless to argue." tree →

3) Informally, very bad at something: "I'm useless at drawing." tree →

sense in the lessons

In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: In the Psalms, "a useless vessel" means a broken pot that is thrown away. It is a picture of someone forgotten and cast aside. Interpretation: Readers take this as the feeling of a person who is ill or ignored and who still turns to God in prayer. In the primary lessons: In everyday life, things become useless when broken. In maths and writing lessons, "useless information" is information you do not need to answer the question. Saying "I'm useless at maths" is a common but unhelpful thing to say; teachers encourage pupils to keep trying. Phrases: useless at, it's useless to, completely useless.

examples

• I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind; I am like a useless vessel. (Writings PSA.31.13, JPS 1917) tree →
• This pen is useless; it has no ink. tree →
• A torch without batteries is useless. tree →
• It's useless to shout; nobody can hear us. tree →
• Some numbers in the problem are useless for the answer. tree →
• I felt useless when I could not help. tree →
• Don't say you are useless at maths; just keep practising. tree →
• Precautions are useless after the event. tree →

note

"-less" means without: useless = without use. Opposite: "useful". In maths word problems, look out for useless (extra) numbers that you do not need. Calling a person useless is unkind.

In the corpora

• I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind; I am like a useless vessel.
• Why are you so useless?» It stopped being fun.
• Elowen goes to her room feeling useless.
• It was reported that hyperinflation happened in Germany about 100 years ago and in Zimbabwe more recently, making money nearly useless.
• New players often need time before a team trusts them; "like a lemon" is UK slang for looking silly or useless.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «useless» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.