Which preposition to use with futile

in Occurrences 13%

Convinced from previous experience that to oppose every form of guaranty by the nations assembled at Paris would be futile in view of the President's apparent determination to compel the adoption of that principle, I endeavored to find a form of guaranty that would be less objectionable than the one which the President had in mind.

as Occurrences 9%

Perhaps he may have found and gathered, ragamuffin though he be, the Lily of High Truth, the Rose of Far-sought Beauty, for whose lack so many of the writers of Ireland, whether famous or forgotten, have been futile as the blown froth upon the shore.

than Occurrences 3%

Change bowlers of various actions and paces, each weirder and more futile than the last, tried their luck.

before Occurrences 3%

The mechanically trained troops of the central empires were futile before armies of men who did their own thinking and delighted in fighting an enemy they could see from the feet up.

to Occurrences 2%

Movement, after all, seemed futile to him.

against Occurrences 2%

All exculpatory arguments were futile against the fact itself.

for Occurrences 2%

Hence it was futile for purposes of discovery, although important to aid processes of thought.

on Occurrences 1%

Moreover, when within a generation or so the Negroes began to retrograde because they had been deprived of every elevating influence, the white people of the South resorted to their old habit of answering their critics with the bold assertion that the effort to enlighten the blacks would prove futile on account of their mental inferiority.

of Occurrences 1%

He acquired the reputation of an eccentric, which he enhanced by wearing costumes of white velvet, and gold-embroidered waistcoats, by inserting, in place of a cravat, a Parma bouquet in the opening of his shirt, by giving famous dinners to men of letters, one of which, a revival of the eighteenth century, celebrating the most futile of his misadventures, was a funeral repast.

after Occurrences 1%

But now, in a plan which has proved wholly futile before her time, which would prove futile after it, even though backed by the wealth of a nation,she has failed, not to our ruin, but to her own.

Which preposition to use with  futile