Unavailing

adj

adj ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Fruitless, futile, useless.

    "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!"

Adjective
  1. 1
    producing no result or effect wordnet

Example

More examples

"All efforts have been unavailing."

Etymology

From un- + availing.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.