POWERLESS in a Sentence

Learn POWERLESS from example sentences; some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

41 example sentences for POWERLESS, such as:

1. And he was powerless, powerless.
2. If he took control, they would be rendered virtually powerless.
3. War and constant pain and hard work had been powerless against their sweet tranquillity.
4. We like the needle on the surface, keep turning, turn, a time left in a hurry, powerless.
5. A significant cause of stress in the workplace is a sense of powerlessness and lack of control.

Free Online Vocabulary Test
K12, SAT, GRE, IELTS, TOEFL
 Input your word:
Search Sentence
Want to search a word in classic works?
Search Classic Quotes
 Meanings and Examples of POWERLESS
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
powerless
 a.  lacking power; without ability, influence, or power
Classic Sentence: (37 in 3 pages)
1  His wife's retort was like a knife-cut across the sinews and he felt suddenly weak and powerless.
Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In VII
2  There was something ominous in the air, exactly what Ashley did not know, but he was powerless to save Scarlett from it.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXII
3  War and constant pain and hard work had been powerless against their sweet tranquillity.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XLI
4  Thanks to the negro vote, the Republicans and their allies were firmly entrenched and they were riding rough-shod over the powerless but still protesting minority.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER LII
5  She put out her hand, and measured the soothing drops into a glass; but as she did so, she knew they would be powerless against the supernatural lucidity of her brain.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: Chapter 13
6  Thus, while in life the great whale's body may have been a real terror to his foes, in his death his ghost becomes a powerless panic to a world.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 69. The Funeral.
7  Men who, like Governor Tillman, start the ball of lynch law rolling for a certain crime, are powerless to stop it when drunken or criminal white toughs feel like hanging an Afro-American on any pretext.
Southern Horrors By Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Context  Highlight   In IV
8  Single-handed, and with his limited knowledge of the mountains which surrounded the settlement, he knew that he was powerless.
A Study In Scarlet By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In PART II: CHAPTER IV. A FLIGHT FOR LIFE
9  All this time, as if a spell were on him, he was motionless and powerless, except to watch her.
Hard Times By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER XIII
10  And yet he was powerless to preserve his privacy; he was a hired man, and these people were his masters.
Lady Chatterley's Lover By D H Lawrence
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 8
11  And he was powerless, powerless.
Lady Chatterley's Lover By D H Lawrence
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 8
12  The young lady, making an effort to recover her cheerfulness, strove to play some livelier tune; but her fingers dropped powerless over the keys.
Oliver Twist By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXIII
13  The masses of furze and heath to the right and left were dark as ever; a mere half-moon was powerless to silver such sable features as theirs.
Return of the Native By Thomas Hardy
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: 5 Through the Moonlight
14  If their intentions are evil they might do you a mischief, and we should be powerless to prevent it.
The Hound of the Baskervilles By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 5. Three Broken Threads
15  Then Death blew on her hands, and she felt that it was colder than the cold wind, and her hands fell down powerless.
Andersen's Fairy Tales By Hans Christian Andersen
Context  Highlight   In THE STORY OF A MOTHER
Example Sentence:
1  We like the needle on the surface, keep turning, turn, a time left in a hurry, powerless.
2  If he took control, they would be rendered virtually powerless.
3  He seemed to devour me with his flaming glance: physically, I felt, at the moment, powerless as stubble exposed to the draught and glow of a furnace: mentally, I still possessed my soul, and with it the certainty of ultimate safety.
4  A significant cause of stress in the workplace is a sense of powerlessness and lack of control.