What's the difference between unable and useless?

Unable


Definition:

  • (a.) Not able; not having sufficient strength, means, knowledge, skill, or the like; impotent' weak; helpless; incapable; -- now usually followed by an infinitive or an adverbial phrase; as, unable for work; unable to bear fatigue.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Unfortunately, due to confidentiality clauses that have been imposed on us by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, we are unable to provide our full names and … titles … However, we believe the evidence that will be submitted will validate the statements that we are making in this submission.” The submission detailed specific allegations – including names and dates – of sexual abuse of child detainees, violence and bullying of children, suicide attempts by children and medical neglect.
  • (2) Consensual but rationally weak criteria devised to extract inferences of causality from such results confirm the generic inadequacy of epidemiology in this area, and are unable to provide definitive scientific support to the perceived mandate for public health action.
  • (3) PMN were found to be nonpermissive for HSV replication and were unable to bind virus in the absence of antibody.
  • (4) E-RFC enriched for T lymphocytes and depleted of macrophages synthesized considerable DNA in response to stimulation with PHA, but were unable to produce significant bone resorbing activity in tissue culture unless macrophages were re-added to the E-RFC.
  • (5) Where he has taken a stand, like on gun control after the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, Obama was unable to achieve legislative change.
  • (6) A failure to reach a solution would potentially leave 200,000 homes without affordable cover, leaving owners unable to sell their properties and potentially exposing them to financial hardship.
  • (7) We have therefore been unable to confirm that SV5 may be a major intrathecal immunogen in multiple sclerosis.
  • (8) The ability of ligand to stimulate its own synthesis and that of its receptor suggests the presence of an autocrine positive feedback loop, however we were unable to break this loop in the breast cancer cells by antibodies that blocked the interaction of TGF alpha with the EGF receptor.
  • (9) The lymph node cells obtained from the animals 1 day after desensitization were unable to produce MIF in the presence of either antigen.
  • (10) It happens to anyone and everyone and this has been an 11-year battle.” Emergency services were called to the oval about 6.30pm to treat Luke for head injuries, but were unable to revive him.
  • (11) Therefore, 31P MR spectroscopy may be unable to quantify the cell fraction of a tumor that has radiobiologic hypoxia.
  • (12) A temperature-sensitive mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was identified which at the restrictive temperature of 37 degrees C is unable to secrete a number of cell wall-associated proteins and thus resembles previously reported sec mutants.
  • (13) The enzyme alone, solubilized and free from cytocrome b5 reductase and cytochrome b5, was unable to catalyze the desaturation of stearoyl CoA.
  • (14) "It will strike consumers as unfair that whilst the company is still trading, they are unable to use gift cards and vouchers," he said.
  • (15) The data suggest that the hypothalamic beta-E containing neurons were unable to adapt to nicotine's repeated effects on this system.
  • (16) Analogues of ATP were unable to reactivate K+-ATP channels even in the presence of Mg2+.
  • (17) PRL, human CG, ACTH, insulin, glucagon, and heat-inactivated TSH were unable to prevent the effect of medium replacement on dopaminergic inhibition of TSH and DA receptor binding.
  • (18) We were unable to detect IL-4 production by mononuclear cells and CD4+ T cell subsets suggesting that, if it is produced at all, IL-4 is produced in extremely small quantities.
  • (19) One elderly woman was left alone in the dark for hours unable to find food or drink.
  • (20) Inexperienced physicians are often unable to immediately identify these translucencies as air enclosures in the intracranial cavity.

Useless


Definition:

  • (a.) Having, or being of, no use; unserviceable; producing no good end; answering no valuable purpose; not advancing the end proposed; unprofitable; ineffectual; as, a useless garment; useless pity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Theoretical findings on sterilization and disinfection measures are useless for the dental practice if their efficiency is put into question due to insufficient consideration of the special conditions of dental treatment.
  • (2) It’s useless if we try and fight with them through force, so we try and fight with them through humour.” “There is a saying that laughing is the best form of medicine.
  • (3) It also seems to be a bit useless as a way of gathering intelligence.
  • (4) It is concluded that the femoral stem should be as thick as possible and that the collar of the prosthesis is useless.
  • (5) The clorus water disinfecting conventional methods by many reasons are useless, even in urbanized cities.
  • (6) By now seemingly every print and online outlet has had a crack at explaining why the Sunday shows are so phenomenally useless.
  • (7) He added: "Why on earth is this useless Goverment pandering to Puffs?
  • (8) It’s great that the new Star Wars film is more diverse , with John Boyega and Daisy Ridley in significant roles; I am pleased to see everyone on #BoycottStarWarsVII gnash and whine uselessly.
  • (9) Inappropriate, useless and potentially harmful surgical diagnostic procedures are also avoided.
  • (10) However, under normal working conditions, taking into account the period of time which inevitably elapses between the patient feeling pain in the kidney and his reaching the Emergency Department and the necessary examinations being carried out which enable the correct diagnosis to be made, the number of hours which have passed make attempts at conservative surgery completely useless.
  • (11) However one should not ask for the impossible of the treatment of male infertility since the most optimal seminal analysis result is useless in the presence of a monophysic menstrual cycle in the partner.
  • (12) The endoscopic retrograde cholangiography is of greatest practical significance for the differential diagnosis of the cholestatic icterus: non-obstructed bile ducts exclude an extrahepatic icterus and render a laparotomy useless.
  • (13) If you have a regulator behaving this uselessly, I suspect MPs will start saying this is not regulation," he said.
  • (14) The importance of a diagnosis before surgery by cytopunction and drill-biopsy has to be emphasized, to prevent an useless mastectomy.
  • (15) In conclusion, excepted for pituitary deficiency, basal plasma TSH (IRMA) levels are accurate and sufficient in the evaluation of the thyroid function and make the TRH-test useless.
  • (16) (4) The annual vaccination campaigns since 1970 against FMD were useless because most of the primary outbreaks of FMD since then can be traced to the production or the application of vaccines.
  • (17) A hepatic lesion regarded as useless for the ultimate diagnosis was present in 16 cases (14.5 per cent).
  • (18) Talking this week to several, I heard the same story of exorbitant fees and shocking interest rates throttling real production, while Adair Turner's "socially useless" financial products attract limitless bubble credit.
  • (19) Clinical evaluation and laboratory tests are useless.
  • (20) The Chinese government is depicted as benevolent, while the US government manages to be both sinister and useless – typified by the black-clad CIA operatives, one of whom gets beaten up by a Chinese character.