Adverb
in an unproductive manner
Source: WordNetStop being so fruitlessly busy and. Use your. Reach out into the unknown and dream of how you can enlarge your experience and improve your mind and your soul and your world. Mary Balogh
Above all, in my anger, I was sad. Isn't that always the way, that at the heart of the fire is a frozen kernel of sorrow that the fire is trying -- valiantly, fruitlessly -- to eradicate. Claire Messud
... worked a lot but sold a little bit that despite having sent all over Europe, fruitlessly or almost ... Francesco Filippini
Fruitlessly doth he groan, beholding the face of the Colchian maid; then over all the mountain pain contracts his limbs, and all his fetters shake beneath her sickle. Gaius Valerius Flaccus
After fruitlessly waiting for the Sultan's reaction, they returned to the ships and prepared a junk (offered by Chinese merchants), filling it with men, artillery and sandbags. Source: Internet
Claude Maddox was questioned fruitlessly by Chicago Police, and there the matter lay. Source: Internet