How to Use fruitless in a Sentence

fruitless

adjective
Definition of fruitlessnext
Synonyms for fruitlessnext
  • But that hardly means the attempt is fruitless, Smith added.
    — Los Angeles Times, 2 Sep. 2021
  • My best continuing efforts to solve this problem have been fruitless for many years.
    — Clarence L. Johnson, Popular Mechanics, 12 Aug. 2021
  • Perhaps that’s because The Post knows that such an appeal would be fruitless.
    — Washington Post, 16 June 2024
  • Only after a fruitless search the realization hits that there is no key to the batter's box.
    — Steve Gardner, USA TODAY, 30 June 2021
  • Talks over the past two weeks between the governor and legislative leaders have been fruitless.
    — Robert Gehrke, The Salt Lake Tribune, 1 Sep. 2021
  • O’Neil, the deputy police chief, said that linking a suspect with the mailings had been frustrating and fruitless for years.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 13 June 2021
  • Although both Daisy and John tried to learn to facilitate for him as well, their efforts always proved fruitless.
    — Lindsay Lee Wallace, TIME, 17 June 2024
  • Except for a few hours of fruitless driving around, Rob has been holed up in a motel room with drapes drawn, smoking cigarettes and sleeping.
    — Meg Kissinger, jsonline.com, 31 Aug. 2021
  • After 14⅓ fruitless innings, the Rays had finally broken through against Pivetta.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 1 Aug. 2021
  • The Taliban resurgence is growing after months of largely fruitless peace talks between the military group and the Afghan government.
    — NBC News, 6 July 2021
  • But Quirk said the large investment in rail may be fruitless, as people continue to work from home or shift to other transportation technologies such as ride-hailing services and self-driving cars.
    — Phil Diehl, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 June 2021
  • Complaining was fruitless, according to Lobalu, the athlete who absconded in Geneva.
    — Vivienne Walt, Time, 8 July 2021
  • Critics say it’s a fruitless attempt to further Trump’s narrative about the 2020 election and will diminish faith in the democratic process.
    — Jonathan J. Cooper, ajc, 30 June 2021
  • But so much time had passed that much of the search was fruitless.
    — Cara Tabachnick, CBS News, 26 Jan. 2023
  • But the search for these stars has been long and fruitless for many, many years.
    — Jackie Appel, Popular Mechanics, 13 June 2023
  • The keypad was broken, and all attempts to type in the code were fruitless.
    — Michael James Rocha, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Oct. 2023
  • Cano had longed to be a father, and to that point, the couple’s efforts to have a child had been fruitless.
    — Nathan Ruiz, Baltimore Sun, 1 June 2023
  • After two years of Tony La Russa proved fruitless, what is there to lose?
    — Shakeia Taylor, Chicago Tribune, 12 Oct. 2022
  • The customer will still have to spot the specific product, but won’t have to wander the store in a fruitless search.
    — Roger Dooley, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024
  • That proved fruitless in the downpour and seven minutes later, the decision was made to put the tarp on the field.
    — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 26 Apr. 2024
  • Still, the Jaguars had opportunities that proved fruitless, putting two on with one out in the eighth and loading the bases with two out in the ninth.
    — Creg Stephenson | Cstephenson@al.com, al, 25 Mar. 2023
  • These protective measures proved fruitless against what is known as the Great Flood of 1927.
    — Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, Journal Sentinel, 15 Oct. 2022
  • The only step the user did not take was running it in safe mode, but that would be a long, likely fruitless process.
    — Jacob Siegal, BGR, 18 Apr. 2022
  • Their fruitless search may be the last attempt to discover the treasure.
    — Teresa Nowakowski, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 May 2023
  • But when the Warriors needed buckets down the stretch in the fourth quarter, those shot attempts near the hoop came up fruitless again and again.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 16 Jan. 2024
  • Fouled propellers, fruitless days on the water, crabs jumping out of the pot and running from him.
    — Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, 29 Aug. 2023
  • But the hunt through Key’s papers, archived in Baltimore, proved fruitless.
    — Amy Crawford, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 July 2022
  • In the pre-Challenge era, research was largely fruitless; the only drug on the market had been approved in 1995.
    — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023
  • The effort proved fruitless because of a lack of consensus.
    — Steven Rich, Washington Post, 17 Dec. 2023
  • One of them ransacked the vehicle in a fruitless attempt to find the missing cocaine.
    — Washington Post, 16 Dec. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fruitless.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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