Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Bringing in no profit or profits.
- adjective Serving no useful purpose.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not profitable; bringing no profit; producing no gain, advantage, or improvement; serving no useful or desired end; useless; profitless: as, an unprofitable business; an unprofitable servant.
- Unimproved; unlearned.
- Synonyms Bootless, unremunerative, fruitless, futile.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Not making a
profit .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective producing little or no profit or gain
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The truth is, Mr. Johnson hated what he called unprofitable chat; and to a gentleman who had disserted some time about the natural history of the mouse -- "I wonder what such a one would have said," cried
Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson Hester Lynch Piozzi 1781
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Maybe NPR thinks than unprofitable is the same as noncommercial?
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And, unlike many other businesses, Bell has an obligation to serve-in unprofitable markets, and when economic times are tough.
The Building Blocks of a Strong Canadian Telecommunications Industry 1993
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Time is precious, and we are concerned to be good husbands of it, because eternity depends upon it, and it is hastening apace into eternity, but abundance of it is wasted in unprofitable converse.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721
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One is if the card holder is deemed unprofitable, which is essentially the case when the card goes unused, says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education for Credit. com.
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In my business, a long-term unprofitable institution is not a safe and sound institution.
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For if the doors ought to be called unprofitable, how much more fitting is it to say to those who only believe, When ye shall have believed all things say, We are unprofitable servants!
The Confutatio Pontificia Johann Michael Reu 1906
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The union says New York-based Verizon Communication Inc. is seeking $20,000 per worker in annual concessions, and workers bristle that their jobs are being characterized as unprofitable when, they say, their work help build the company's lucrative, non-union wireless business.
FOXNews.com 2011
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The union says New York-based Verizon Communication Inc. is seeking $20,000 per worker in annual concessions, and workers bristle that their jobs are being characterized as unprofitable when, they say, their work help build the company's lucrative, non-union wireless business.
SFGate: Top News Stories By JENNIFER PELTZ 2011
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` That all have revolted, that they are become unprofitable, that is, none who does good, no not one; their throat is an open sepulcher; there is no fear of God before their eyes, '(Psalm 5: 10; 14: 3) he deplores, truly, the impiety of his own age; yet Paul (Romans 3: 12) does not scruple to extend it to all men of every age: and with justice; for it is not a mere complaint concerning a few men, but a description of the human mind when left to itself, destitute of the
Commentary on Genesis - Volume 1 1509-1564 1996
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