inefficacious
AdjectiveWordNet 3.0
Adjective (1)
- lacking the power to produce a desired effect“laws that are inefficacious in stopping crime”
Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)
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]