unavailing

Definition

Fruitless, futile, useless.

Etymology

From un- + availing.

Example Sentences

• "The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!"
• "During the next ten years, efforts to secure support for extending the railway south of Hawick were unavailing."