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Dead trees or branches; useless material.

To overflow with water; to inundate; to overwhelm. The deluged earth would useless grow. Blackmore.

To cast off as useless or as no longer of service; to dismiss from employment, confidence, or favor; to discharge; to turn away. They blame the favorites, and think it nothing extraordinary that the queen should . . . resolve to discard them. Swift.

To disable; to render useless. Comber.

or from that on which a thing is mounted; to break the carriage or wheels of, and render useless; to deprive of equipments or mountings; -- said esp. of artillery.

To deprive of utility; to render useless. [R.] Mrs. Browning.

To endure. [Obs.] So causeless such drede for to drie. Chaucer.

Anything driven at random. "Some log . . . a useless drift." Dryden.

fting or floating as on water. The current of humanity, with its heavy proportion of very useless driftwood. New Your Times.

l to that branch of physiology which treats of rudimentary organs, in view of their being useless to the life of the organism. To the doctrine of dysteleology, or the denial of final causes, a proof of the real existence of such a thing as instinct must necessarily be fatal. Word (Dynamic Sociology).…

Without effect or advantage; useless; bootless. Shak. -- Ef*fect"less*ly, adv.

r embarrass; as, his movements were encumbered by his mantle; his mind is encumbered with useless learning. Not encumbered with any notable inconvenience. Hooker.

ered as a force shaping events; fortune; esp., opposing circumstances against which it is useless to struggle; as, fate was, or the fates were, against him. A brave man struggling in the storms of fate. Pope. Sometimes an hour of Fate's serenest weather strikes through our changeful sky its coming beams. B. Taylor.…

To put into the head of, as something useless o [Obs.] L'Estrange.

The act of forging metal into shape. [Obs.] Useless the forgery Of brazen shield and spear. Milton.

A sudden causeless change or turn of the mind; a whim of fancy; a capricious prank; a vagary or caprice. She is restless and peevish, and sometimes in a freak will instantly change her habitation. Spectator.

Productive of no advantage or good effect; vain; idle; useless; unprofitable; as, a fruitless attempt; a fruitless controversy. They in mutual accusation spent The fruitless hours. Milton.

Vain; useless; unprofitable. [Obs.] South.

Vain; ineffectual; useless; unprofitable; null; voil; nugatory; of no effect. "Our frustrate search." Shak.

Of no importance; answering no useful end; useless; vain; worthless. "Futile theories." I. Taylor. His reasoning . . . was singularly futile. Macaulay.