Incapable of producing results; useless; not successful; not worth attempting.
(quote-book)
(RQ:Brmnghm Gsmr)
There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.(..)Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors. Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place.
{{quote-journal|date=December 15, 2011|author=Marc Higginson|work=BBC Sport