Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- In a purposeless manner; aimlessly; without apparent object.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb In a
purposeless manner.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb without a clear purpose
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It just expends your energy wastefully—purposelessly.
Recovering From Religious Abuse Jack Watts 2011
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By nurturing my bitterness, I thought I was punishing my abusers, but I was only punishing myself, spinning my wheels purposelessly for years.
Recovering From Religious Abuse Jack Watts 2011
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Didn't we all, every one of us, waste hours -- days, even -- aimlessly, purposelessly clicking links from one site to the next, not knowing where we would go and then not knowing where our hours went?
Jeff Jarvis: The Distraction Trope Jeff Jarvis 2011
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It just expends your energy wastefully—purposelessly.
Recovering From Religious Abuse Jack Watts 2011
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Self-reporting in these matters is hard, but I am pretty sure “no end” can only mean “extensively” to me, while “to no end” * could* be used to express either “extensively” or “purposelessly” though I believe I favor the latter.
Prescriptivists amaze me (to) no end « Motivated Grammar 2009
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Didn't we all, every one of us, waste hours -- days, even -- aimlessly, purposelessly clicking links from one site to the next, not knowing where we would go and then not knowing where our hours went?
Jeff Jarvis: The Distraction Trope Jeff Jarvis 2011
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By nurturing my bitterness, I thought I was punishing my abusers, but I was only punishing myself, spinning my wheels purposelessly for years.
Recovering From Religious Abuse Jack Watts 2011
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The ancient centre had been "purposelessly destroyed" by Flying Fortresses 18 months earlier.
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It just expends your energy wastefully—purposelessly.
Recovering From Religious Abuse Jack Watts 2011
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By nurturing my bitterness, I thought I was punishing my abusers, but I was only punishing myself, spinning my wheels purposelessly for years.
Recovering From Religious Abuse Jack Watts 2011
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