Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Void of profit, gain, or advantage.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Without profit; unprofitable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective not yielding profit

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective without profit or reward

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

profit +‎ -less

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Examples

  • But profits evaporated, creating an era of so-called profitless prosperity in the middle of the decade when auto makers sold record numbers of vehicles in the U.S. market - as many as 17-million annually - and lost tens of billions of dollars.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed GREG KEENAN AUTO INDUSTRY REPORTER 2012

  • But profits evaporated, creating an era of so-called profitless prosperity in the middle of the decade when auto makers sold record numbers of vehicles in the U.S. market - as many as 17-million annually - and lost tens of billions of dollars.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed GREG KEENAN 2012

  • That led to years of what is known as profitless prosperity, when Americans were buying 16 million vehicles or more annually, auto plants were humming and GM, Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. were losing tens of billions of dollars.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed Greg Keenan 2010

  • "It's sometimes referred to as profitless prosperity."

    News & Features from Minnesota Public Radio 2009

  • In the court's 5-3 decision (Justice Samuel Alito was recused since he owns over $100,000 in Exxon stock) Justice David Souter wrote that the Exxon Valdez spill was "profitless" for the company and that the penalty should be "reasonably predictable" in its severity.

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Brendan DeMelle: Unearthed: News of the Week the Mainstream Media Forgot to Report 2008

  • What it says is that with significant but bearable cost, in terms of sluggish growth and a kind of profitless quasi-prosperity for a couple of years, we can work out of this unique animal that Reaganomics produced in the early 1980s.

    The United States: Economic Outlook 1985

  • It would be a mean and profitless world without mystery.

    CHAPTER XXIX 2010

  • He said it was in poor taste, utterly profitless, anyway, and not in harmony with university traditions and policy.

    Chapter 6: Adumbrations 2010

  • "We have absolutely no room for profitless revenue or any discretionary expenditures."

    H-P Chief Warns of Tough Times Ben Worthen 2011

  • This was a diversion from the profitless discussion, and Kohokumu and I dipped our paddles and raced the little outrigger canoe to the dancing pole.

    The Water Baby 2010

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