NEEDLESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does needless mean? 

• NEEDLESS (adjective)
  The adjective NEEDLESS has 1 sense:

1. unnecessary and unwarranted

  Familiarity information: NEEDLESS used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NEEDLESS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unnecessary and unwarranted

Synonyms:

gratuitous; needless; uncalled-for

Context example:

a strikers' tent camp...was burned with needless loss of life

Similar:

unnecessary; unneeded (not necessary)

 Context examples 

It would be needless to say, that the gentlemen advanced in the good opinion of each other, as they advanced in each other's acquaintance, for it could not be otherwise.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

At least, therefore, I did not assume the character of needless precipitance merely to show off before the ladies.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Sufficient for me to share the sport and lend my humble help to the capture without distracting that intent brain with needless interruption.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He pronounced it needless to send for a doctor: nature, he was sure, would manage best, left to herself.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Needless to add, I took care before leaving to lift, for ever and adequately, this source of reproach.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

From this way of reasoning, the author drew several moral applications, useful in the conduct of life, but needless here to repeat.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“My dear, you give yourself a great deal of needless trouble,” said her mother at last; “depend upon it, it is something not at all worth understanding.”

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

She rose with an air of dignity to leave the room, when Mr. Peggotty signified that it was needless.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Think, then, what I must have endured in hearing it bandied between the Eltons with all the vulgarity of needless repetition, and all the insolence of imaginary superiority.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Needless to say the arena was crowded with hosts of lesser lights, and the dust and sweat and din became terrific.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)