A.useless, unprofitable, “μετάνοια” Batr.70; “νέες” Hdt.1.166; “ἄ. ὁ ὀφθαλμὸς γίνεται” Hp.Prorrh.2.19; “οὐκ ἄ. ἥδ᾽ ἡ ἄνοια” Th.6.16; χρεομένῳ ἄχρηστα useless if you try to use them, Hp.Art.14; “πεσεῖν ἄ. θέσφατον” without effect, E.IT121; “ἄ. ἐς πόλεμον” Hdt.8.142, Lycurg.53; “πρός τι” Arist.HA560b14: c. gen. rei, “ἄ. τῶν ἔργων” Id.Oec.1345a35; ἄ. τινι useless to a person, Hdt.1.80, cf. X.Oec.8.4 (Sup.); “τῇ πόλει” E.Heracl.4; “τὸ διηπορηκέναι οὐκ ἄ.” Arist.Cat.8b24.
2. = ἀχρεῖος (which it almost superseded in the Oratt. and later Greek), useless, do-nothing, D.19.135 (Comp.), etc.; “ἄ. πολῖται” Is.7.37; σοφισταί prob. l. in Lys.33.3; non-effective, unwarlike, Eun.Hist.p.239D.; so (with a pun—not having received an oracle) Ath.3.98c. Adv. “-τως, ἔχειν πρός τι” D.61.43.
2. obsolete, Eust.118.25, Sch.rec.S.El.132.
3. not to be used, unseemly, EM463.26.