"what's the use" meaning in English

See what's the use in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} what's the use
  1. (colloquial, often with a following present participle or infinitive expression) Used to indicate that a specified or implied action cannot succeed or offers no advantage if successful Tags: colloquial, often Related terms: there's no use, no use, it's no use
    Sense id: en-what's_the_use-en-phrase-NJ2bAdpL Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "what's the use",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "What's the use trying to tell him? He won't listen.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "What's the use of worrying? It never was worthwhile.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to indicate that a specified or implied action cannot succeed or offers no advantage if successful"
      ],
      "id": "en-what's_the_use-en-phrase-NJ2bAdpL",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, often with a following present participle or infinitive expression) Used to indicate that a specified or implied action cannot succeed or offers no advantage if successful"
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "with a following present participle or infinitive expression"
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "there's no use"
        },
        {
          "word": "no use"
        },
        {
          "word": "it's no use"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "often"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "what's the use"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "what's the use",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "there's no use"
    },
    {
      "word": "no use"
    },
    {
      "word": "it's no use"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "What's the use trying to tell him? He won't listen.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "What's the use of worrying? It never was worthwhile.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to indicate that a specified or implied action cannot succeed or offers no advantage if successful"
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, often with a following present participle or infinitive expression) Used to indicate that a specified or implied action cannot succeed or offers no advantage if successful"
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "with a following present participle or infinitive expression"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "often"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "what's the use"
}

Download raw JSONL data for what's the use meaning in English (1.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.