otiose
/'ouʃious/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adjective:
- Lazy, idle, or disinclined to work or exertion: Describes a person or entity that avoids work or effort.
- Futile, ineffective, or producing no result: Describes an action, effort, or thing that serves no useful purpose or has no effect.
- Redundant, superfluous, or serving no useful purpose: Describes something that is unnecessary or without justification for its existence.
Usage Examples
- Describing a person's character or behavior:
- The otiose manager spent his afternoons napping while his team struggled with the workload.
- Critics dismissed the aristocracy as otiose and out of touch with the needs of the people.
- Describing an action or effort:
- After the system crashed, all our attempts to save the data were otiose.
- The committee's report was deemed otiose, as it merely restated known facts without offering new solutions.
- Describing something as superfluous:
- The editor removed the otiose adjectives to make the prose more concise.
- In a well-designed machine, no part is otiose; every component has a function.
Advanced Usage
- In literary or formal critique: Often used to describe elements in a text that are redundant or do not contribute to the whole.
- The director cut several otiose scenes that slowed the film's pace.
- In philosophical or existential contexts: Can describe a perceived lack of purpose.
- He pondered whether human existence was ultimately otiose in the vast, uncaring universe.
Variants and Related Words
- Otiosity (n): The state or quality of being otiose; idleness or futility.
- The otiosity of the debate frustrated those seeking concrete action.
Synonyms
- Idle: Not active or in use; avoiding work.
- Futile: Incapable of producing any useful result; pointless.
- Superfluous: Unnecessary, especially through being more than enough.
- Inactive: Not engaging in or involving any or much physical activity.
- Vain: Producing no result; useless.
Antonyms
- Productive: Achieving or producing a significant amount or result.
- Useful: Able to be used for a practical purpose or in several ways.
- Essential: Absolutely necessary; extremely important.
- Effective: Successful in producing a desired or intended result.
Related Phrases and Idioms
(Note: "Otiose" itself is not commonly used in fixed idioms, but it relates to concepts expressed in common phrases.) - A waste of breath: An effort that is completely futile or otiose. - Arguing with him is a waste of breath; he never listens. - Dead wood: People or things that are no longer useful or effective, similar to being otiose. - The new CEO plans to cut the dead wood from the company's management.
Adjective
- 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
- producing no result or effect
- a futile effort
- the therapy was ineffectual
- an otiose undertaking
- an unavailing attempt
- 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