Search Result for "inefficacious": 
Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (1)

1. lacking the power to produce a desired effect;
- Example: "laws that are inefficacious in stopping crime"


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Inefficacious \In*ef`fi*ca"cious\, a. [Pref. in- not + efficacious: cf. F. inefficace, L. inefficax.] Not efficacious; not having power to produce the effect desired; inadequate; incompetent; inefficient; impotent. --Boyle. [1913 Webster] The authority of Parliament must become inefficacious . . . to restrain the growth of disorders. --Burke. [1913 Webster] Note: Ineffectual, says Johnson, rather denotes an actual failure, and inefficacious an habitual impotence to any effect. But the distinction is not always observed, nor can it be; for we can not always know whether means are inefficacious till experiment has proved them ineffectual. Inefficacious is therefore sometimes synonymous with ineffectual. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

inefficacious adj 1: lacking the power to produce a desired effect; "laws that are inefficacious in stopping crime" [ant: efficacious]