inutility

He shouted, and called, and thumped, just as you or I might have done, without any regard to its manifest inutility.

From Mildred Arkell, Volume II (of 3) A Novel by Mrs. Henry Wood

For I have always held that it would be "rather rash" to conclude that any given cases of apparent inutility are certainly cases of real inutility, merely on the ground that utility is not perceived.

From Darwin, and After Darwin, Volume 2 Post-Darwinian Questions: Heredity and Utility by George John Romanes

Janet listened eagerly as Harry spoke of the inutility of their search, and then the poor girl shrank back; but attention was drawn from her by a sharp cry of pain from Canau.

From A Little World by George Manville Fenn

That which is an eternal subject of dispute is an eternal inutility.

From Voltaire: A Sketch of his Life and Works by G. W. (George William) Foote

But let me warn you once more against the inutility of the step you would take.

From Sir Brook Fossbrooke, Volume I. by Charles James Lever

Let none therefore be surprised if our love fastens on these majestic dogmas, by which we are more and more overshadowed, on these higher inutilities which are our vocation.

From Underground Man by Gabriel Tarde

A gentleman, on the contrary, in addition to his other noble inutilities, is useless as an almanac.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 53, No. 328, February, 1843 by Various

We never grudged millions to burrow beneath New York for light, or for drink or speed, why then should we grudge them for the beautiful inutilities that might make the surface of the city splendid.

From The Collectors by Frank Jewett Mather

Ulysses Aldrovandus was a celebrated naturalist of the sixteenth century, and his work on natural history, in thirteen folio volumes, contains with much that is valuable a large proportion of fables and inutilities.

From Bulfinch's Mythology: the Age of Fable by Thomas Bulfinch