fruitless

With Watergate closing in, Nixon fired Haldeman and Ehrlichman in a fruitless effort to insulate himself.

But it is fruitless to look there, in those Paper-bags, for such.

Wolfe spent the summer in fruitless efforts to reduce Quebec.

An extremely rare bird, a robin, hopped from his path and continued a fruitless search for insects.

The brethren of Saxony appealed to him from their visitor, and, finding this fruitless, they carried their complaint to Gregory.

The efforts to draw something out of little Dorothea were also fruitless.