otiose

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
otiose
    adj 1: serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being;
           "otiose lines in a play"; "advice is wasted words"; "a
           pointless remark"; "a life essentially purposeless";
           "senseless violence" [syn: {otiose}, {pointless},
           {purposeless}, {senseless}, {superfluous}, {wasted}]
    2: producing no result or effect; "a futile effort"; "the
       therapy was ineffectual"; "an otiose undertaking"; "an
       unavailing attempt" [syn: {futile}, {ineffectual}, {otiose},
       {unavailing}]
    3: disinclined to work or exertion; "faineant kings under whose
       rule the country languished"; "an indolent hanger-on"; "too
       lazy to wash the dishes"; "shiftless idle youth"; "slothful
       employees"; "the unemployed are not necessarily work-shy"
       [syn: {faineant}, {indolent}, {lazy}, {otiose}, {slothful},
       {work-shy}]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Otiose \O"ti*ose`\, a. [L. otiosus, fr. otium ease.]
   Being at leisure or ease; unemployed; indolent; idle. "Otiose
   assent." --Paley.
   [1913 Webster]

         The true keeping of the Sabbath was not that otiose and
         unprofitable cessation from even good deeds which they
         would enforce.                           --Alford.
   [1913 Webster]
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
77 Moby Thesaurus words for "otiose":
      abortive, airy, asinine, at leisure, at liberty, at loose ends,
      available, barren, bootless, catchpenny, disengaged, empty, fallow,
      fatuous, flimsy, foolish, free, fribble, fribbling, frivolous,
      frothy, fruitless, functionless, futile, gainless, idle,
      in disrepair, inane, inapplicable, inoperable, inoperative,
      jobless, leisure, leisured, light, lumpen, nonfunctional,
      nonremunerative, nonutilitarian, nugacious, nugatory, off,
      off duty, off work, out of employ, out of harness, out of order,
      out of whack, out of work, profitless, rewardless, shallow, silly,
      slender, slight, sterile, superficial, trifling, trite, trivial,
      unconducive, unemployable, unemployed, unfit, unhelpful,
      unoccupied, unproductive, unprofitable, unremunerative,
      unrewarding, unsuitable, unusable, unworkable, vacuous, vain,
      vapid, windy

    

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