(v. t.) Of no importance; answering no useful end; useless; vain; worthless.
Example Sentences:
(1) It is suggested the participation of glycogen (starch) in the self-oscillatory mechanism of the futile cycle formed by the phosphofructokinase and fructose bisphosphatase reactions may give rise to oscillations with the period of 10(3)-10(4) min, which may serve as the basis for the cell clock.
(2) It also appears that she would have been one of those behind the government's futile attempts to oppose restrictions on neonicotinoids.
(3) Every time he felt the futility of his work for the NAACP, he’d finger the well-worn pages, and it would strengthen his resolve.” This is how classics of this calibre work their way into the literary bloodstream.
(4) Representing the Sun in the second hearing, Richard Spearman QC told the court that keeping the privacy injunction in place was futile.
(5) We propose that when rationing criteria refer to medical benefit, the meanings of futility and rationing share certain common features.
(6) So we have futile rhetoric on immigration, but minimal discussion over how to reinvent politics in the digital age.
(7) Last week’s International Women’s Day offered a fresh variation on that enjoyable, if futile, new pastime – posthumous EU partisanship.
(8) Inhibition of this futile cycling may represent one avenue by which energetic costs of maintenance and production can be lowered in ruminants.
(9) We postulated that the high-affinity potassium uptake system was able to generate such a steep gradient across the membrane that the low-affinity system would act in reverse, thus creating a futile cycle of potassium ions at the cost of energy.
(10) Zuckerberg has long been courting China’s leaders in a so far futile attempt to access the country with the world’s largest number of Internet users — 668 million as of last year.
(11) In 1986, while serving as prime minister and foreign minister, Peres held negotiations that led to the London agreement, the ultimately futile peace accord that included Israeli-Jordanian cooperation in administrating the West Bank.
(12) Futile cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) may prevent humane care of the dying child and deprive parents of the opportunity to express their love, grief, and dedication at a critical moment, while appropriate and successful CPR may restore intact their child.
(13) Of the 8 women who had futile laparotomies, 4 had unilateral salpingectomy and a contralateral Pomeroy ligation, but insufficient tube remained for reversal; 2 others had single-burn cautery, but had insufficient tube length, and the Pomeroy procedures in 2 others left insufficient distal tissue.
(14) Furthermore, addition of low concentrations of PAPS (0.5 microM) to a reconstituted system of microsomes and cytosol impaired the formation of fluorescent product from 4-methylumbelliferyl sulfate until PAPS was consumed, indicating that futile cycling via arylsulfatase and sulfotransferase occurred.
(15) However, the early stages are often missed or lead to futile diagnostic endeavours.
(16) Ignoring personal ghosts, or those of an entire country traumatised by war and genocide, is futile and even dangerous.
(17) Rationing, triage, and medical futility in relation to AIDS patients require careful deliberation and consideration.
(18) It’s idealistic, it’s the right thing to do even if it turns out to be utterly futile.
(19) These unusual kinetic properties may be of significance with regard to the regulation of ornithine transcarbamylase in this organism, especially in the avoidance of a futile ornithine cycle.
(20) Iceland This strange and beautiful country is now as flooded with satellite trash as everywhere else, but is listed in the futile hope that the suppression it once practised might be revived.
Piffle
Definition:
Example Sentences:
(1) Is it hopelessly old fart-ish to hope exposure that to the horrors described by Buergenthal will remind all of us of the piffling nature of our next household conflagration about who gets to wear which pair of jeans, or whether homework on the weekend really constitutes a hardship – or even, somehow, temper the demand for new electronic equipment?
(2) If he can't do this here, then his global rhetoric will look thin indeed - and it's no use announcing some piffling sum and pretending it will do.
(3) Dan Nolan (@dannolan) PEFO more like piffle boom August 13, 2013 3.40am BST Bowen is asked whether the assumptions in PEFO are a reflection on the efficacy or otherwise of the PNG Solution.
(4) The bottom line for us is they were asking the taxpayers for $50m to buy new plant and equipment … so Coca-Cola Amatil could make a larger profit,” Hockey said, as he campaigned for next weekend’s by-election in the Brisbane seat of Griffith But Sharman Stone, the Coalition backbencher who represents the area, said the government is “scapegoating” SPC Ardmona and exaggerating “piffling” issues in the companies’ enterprise agreement to draw the struggling fruit manufacturer into a “union witch-hunt”.
(5) The government is “scapegoating” SPC Ardmona and exaggerating “piffling” issues in the companies’ enterprise agreement to draw the struggling fruit manufacturer into a “union witch-hunt”, the Coalition backbencher Sharman Stone has said.
(6) As a result, disabled people are losing more than any other group, not by some piffling, coincidental amount, but by a factor of three or four; by thousands of pounds a year.
(7) It’s true that claimants are sanctioned for piffling reasons .
(8) The targets aren't piffling, incidentally – they are significantly beyond "answering to your name".
(9) There was never any question of me being offered it, or of it being debated … It’s just, as they say, poppycock and piffle.” The tensions surrounding the reshuffle were illustrated in the early evening as a heated discussion appeared to break out in Corbyn’s office after the Labour leader outlined his thinking for the reshuffle to Benn.
(10) Eurosceptics are right to think that the terms secured are piffling, even if he gets everything on the table.
(11) But there is, at least, anecdotal evidence to suggest that the often perceptive mayor's notion is an "inverted pyramid of piffle".
(12) Over the past century they were used not only to "explain" this piffle about cornflakes but, more insidiously, to explain differences in achievement between black and white schoolchildren in the US.
(13) Cameron found himself on the back foot, defending his plans to renegotiate the terms of Britain's EU membership in the face of Lawson's contemptuous assessment that he will secure only "piffling changes".
(14) The DfE’s guidelines on the use of exclamation marks for its spelling and grammar tests were “piffle” and “tortuous nonsense”, according to Blower.
(15) But Stone, the member for the seat of Murray which includes Shepparton, said the provisions were “piffling” and “add up at most to a few thousand dollars when the company has been losing millions at the plant because of the broader economic conditions and because of the government’s policies.” The “wet” allowance, she said, had only ever been paid to workers who provided their own protective “space suits” to be worn when using caustic soda to clean the plant.
(16) Sandler, a perennial Razzie "favourite", saw his film beat rivals such as Will and Jaden Smith sci-fi bomb After Earth , festive celluloid piffle A Madea Christmas and ensemble turkey Movie 43 , all of which scored six nominations.
(17) These sentiments are dismissed by Merivel's Quaker friend, Pearce, as "pagan, freakish piffle", but Merivel clings to them, orders an artist's smock and a floppy hat, canvases, pigments and brushes, and sets about his task with his characteristic over-enthusiasm, only to understand very quickly that his work has no value whatsoever.
(18) But he wrote a load of racist, reactionary, negative, neocon piffle."
(19) There was never any question of me being offered it, or of it being debated … It’s just, as they say, poppycock and piffle.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest “It’s poppycock and piffle”: Diane Abbott dismisses shadow foreign secretary rumour Lewis, a new MP who has served in the army in Afghanistan, said he would not be keen to take on a shadow cabinet role so quickly.
(20) Instead, I'm snacking on the scraps of joyous piffle like Alex Polizzi's The Fixer .