futilely

comparative more futilely · superlative most futilely

1. In a futile manner.

   Near-synonyms: fruitlessly, pointlessly, to no avail, in vain

   3 more examples

   My fingers clawed futilely at the unyielding portal, while my eyes sought in vain for a duplicate of the button which had given us ingress.

   1913 January–May, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Gods of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as The Gods of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., September 1918, →OCLC

   Her counsellors […] were reluctant to accept the cession of Bombay and Tangier, and […] it proved costly to maintain, and when the present struggle was over it was futilely abandoned in 1684.

   1966, H. V. Livermore, A New History of Portugal, page 191

   […] within those dolls where some things still lurk unseen, struggling futilely to undo the red threads that bind their forms, […]

   2014, Rin Chupeco, The Girl from the Well

   Synonyms: fruitlessly, pointlessly, to no avail, in vain