A bit older, we took apart moped engines and filed down the pistons in a futile effort to go faster.

All that the reallocation of resources achieved was a brief and ultimately futile effort to keep people where there was no longer work for them to earn a living.

I can't justify paying 128 for two tickets to watch a futile effort to recover a 5-1 deficit.

I make a brief, futile effort to catch it before resignedly sitting down.

That campaign has cost the taxpayer at least 150,000 in legal bills for what will be confirmed this week as a futile effort to maintain secrecy against the public interest.