useless

«useless» in Mova's school 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 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

• 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

• 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.
• I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind; I am like a useless vessel.

Trees and pragmatics

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