How To Use Powerless In A Sentence

One of the strongest non-random patterns is that rich and powerful people are healthier than poor and powerless people.
Anger and hatred are powerless in the face of authentic human kindness.
Up to this contact with Price, and indeed for some time after, I had regarded group selection as so ill-defined, so woolly in the uses made by its proponents, and so generally powerless against selection at the individual and genic levels, that the idea might as well be omitted from the toolkit of a working evolutionist. David Sloan Wilson: Truth and Reconciliation for Group Selection XIII: Hamilton Speaks
So we are inclined to side with the powerless rather than the powerful.
Even comparatively powerless and uninfluential lay people must accept some responsibility for the situation.

She could hardly bear to look on the livid face, the closed eyes, the thin dilated nostrils, and the painful expression of powerlessness that met her sight. The Semi-Attached Couple
Traffic wardens were powerless to ticket him because the law says penalties cannot be given out if the lines are obscured.
When, in the middle of the the first season, callow account exec Pete Campbell walks past striving-to-be-a-copywriter secretary Peggy Olson's desk without acknowledging her, Peggy's incremental comprehension of her powerlessness with this guy she's had sex with is documented in her face's shift from anticipation to abashment to acceptance. Sheila Weller: Mad Hopes for the Mad Men Women
To capture the mystery, caprice and force of romantic love, the ancients conjured Cupid, a mischievous immortal in whose thrall we are wholly powerless.
People have felt their democratic rights damaged because they have found themselves powerless to influence or affect the outcome in the services that matter most to them. The Global Marketplace
The powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness, is the secret of its immortality.
The toothless regulator appears powerless to stop the alleged cartel of energy companies. Times, Sunday Times
The Council appears to be powerless to do anything to improve or upgrade them, said Mr Stanley.
But unlike the peripheral baboons, who are physically controlled by the dominant ones, the peripheral men are not powerless.
How can we support black individuals who feel powerless and isolated?
If the person or organisation whose performance is being measured feels powerless to influence the indicator, inappropriate measurement can also lead to demotivation, dysfunction, and crisis.
His critique of landlord powerlessness rests on the belief that aristocratic rule and estate ownership are ends in themselves.
So why are we so powerless to control ourselves? Times, Sunday Times
Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer's default settings and you may be able to carry on.
Olbermann did, however, take issue with what he viewed as "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart's comparison of MSNBC to Fox News, saying, "Sticking up for the powerless is not the moral equivalent of sticking up for the powerful. Keith Olbermann Suspends 'Worst Person' Segment In Wake Of Rally To Restore Sanity (VIDEO)
The villagers were powerless against the rising flood water.
Bosingwa was powerless to haul the winger in, with the Wales international's cross beautifully angled as it fizzed across the six-yard box beyond Terry for Adebayor to tap home ahead of a Petr Cech's tentative dive. Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Chelsea | Premier League match report
The other one looked completely powerless. Times, Sunday Times
When the intelligence becomes powerless to command and to say what and when and how the affections shall disport themselves, then man becomes a slave to his heart and is led like an ass by the nose hither and thither; and when nature thus runs unrestrained and wild, it makes for the mudholes of lust wherein to wallow and besot itself. Explanation of Catholic Morals A Concise, Reasoned, and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals
Musharraf spent much of his time talking about what he called the desperation, hopelessness, and powerlessness of Muslims around the world, who see disputes like the one over Kashmir and the Palestinian people going unresolved. CNN Transcript Nov 10, 2001
He couldn't stand feeling so impotent, so powerless.
Step 1: Admit that your are powerless over your egos and past glories, that your lives have become unmanageable.
A powerless Hei engages in a fight with Shizume who reveals that the “Izanami” Hei was asked to destroy is actually Yin, which both surprises and baffles Hei. Darker than Black season 2 – ep 06 « Undercover
Councillor Ryan said the council was powerless to prevent the trees from being chopped down as it does not own the land.
But the owners of off-licences insisted they only sold alcohol to adults and were ‘powerless to stop them passing it on to minors.’
It is powerless unless public opinion and government uphold it. MANAGING IN TURBULENT TIMES
Why do you even bother electing a president if you want the office to remain powerless and only accountable to a slim partisan minority? Sources: White House considers drafting health care bill
Some feel they are personally powerless to bring them about, while others use false promises as a sort of motivational technique that backfires. Times, Sunday Times
In general, one's position in an organization, one's salary ranking in that organization and one's value/replaceability in that organization all lead to a delineation of power or powerlessness. Audience Weighs In On Brett Farve, Black 'Girl Power'
I have felt powerless, disgusted, frustrated, horrified and even fearful this week, all in equal measure.
In truth, he has written as easily about love as he has about tyranny, as nimbly about rabid dictators as about powerless artists; he has given us "Vargas Llosa light," in delightfully erotic (thinly veiled autobiographical) stories, and "Vargas Llosa dark," in elaborately researched and profoundly illuminating historical novels. The power of Mario Vargas Llosa's words led the political writer to Nobel Prize
His services to his native country rendered his name endeared to hundreds of thousands of native Irish Catholics, men whom he himself looked on, and quite truly, as being powerless in Ireland either for good or evil, merely "hewers of wood and drawers of water". The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8: Infamy-Lapparent
I would guess that one of the reasons our judiciary is somewhat unpolitical, is that it is so powerless.
One moment I felt completely powerless. Times, Sunday Times
As family members we have felt powerless to influence the situation. Times, Sunday Times
In fact, increasingly, people are becoming frustrated and feeling voiceless and powerless to control or stop the kind of raunch coming into their homes.
But they were all powerless to join me in my revels, victims of their own bad planning and a fundamental inability to shank, scull and top the ball with anything like my comfortable lack of effort.
When the enemy attacked, we were completely powerless against them.
When the enemy attacked, we were completely powerless against them.
But neither they nor any of the others are powerless to control their behaviour. The Sun
I do not remember that they were molested, even by the guns of General Wagner, who had been foolishly posted with two small brigades across the turnpike, a half-mile in our front, where he was needless for apprisal and powerless for resistance. The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 1
That is a disadvantage I am powerless to overcome, unless it be by forewarning and forearming those readers who zealously seek the truth.
If there is no chemical messenger to act as a go-between, the brain is powerless to alter the action of the immune system. PLACEBO: The Belief Effect
It may sweep up many who feel their environment is toxic and out of balance, but it is powerless to deliver what it promises - a satisfying and peaceful life lived in harmony with nature.
The powerless old sword frightens nobody now — the steel is turned to pewter too, somehow, and will no longer shear a Christian head off any shoulders. Notes of a Journey From Cornhill to Grand Cairo
_staretz_ disappeared, there were always ten new ones to take his place, and the flood mounted to such an extent that the authorities were often powerless to cope with it. Modern Saints and Seers
Mary feels quite powerless to protect her own daughter and to influence where she is going and what she is doing online.
The absolute powerless nature of their position may be summarized: ‘There was no custom, no tradition to which they could refer, as could the villeins or tenants, in the care of an autocratic master.’
This natural tragedy was so huge we were powerless to help. The Sun
Just as in Scandinavia the parasitic rowan is deemed a countercharm to sorcery, so in Germany the parasitic mistletoe is still commonly considered a protection against witch-craft, and in Sweden, as we saw, the mistletoe which is gathered on Midsummer Eve is attached to the ceiling of the house, the horses stall or the cows crib, in the belief that this renders the Troll powerless to injure man or beast. Chapter 68. The Golden Bough
Much of what's wrong is related to powerless taxpayers and choiceless consumers funding companies that deliver crap products and services at high prices. Moving Forward on Health Care - Swampland - TIME.com
Going along as a small independent with just a few programmes to your name does render you relatively powerless.
The Top Hat tried to say something, his hands flailing, his expression demanding mercy now that he was powerless. Masked
She was powerless in his vice-like grip.
This gradually ebbed as they seemed powerless to prevent their opponents decamping in their half.
But they were powerless to resist the champions. Times, Sunday Times
Those who protested against the president's decision were actually barking at the moon , since they were in a powerless minority.
Local people feel strongly about the proposed development but are virtually powerless to intervene.
The powerlessness of the police in these matters was a joke. Times, Sunday Times
Secretary's Office, was reputed to be an excellent mathematician, and had high testimonials of his qualification, he applied for the professorship; evidently feeling the anomalousness of his position, and his inability and powerlessness to establish a system of Public School The Story of My Life Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada
The south was powerless, helpless. Democracy and its Critics - Anglo-American democratic thought in the nineteenth century
Sunshine restored, even in the flooded quarters, the true Parisian gaiety that had for a time been overclouded with a terrible sense of powerlessness and insecurity. The Paris Flood of 1910 | Edwardian Promenade
To not know is bewildering and only contributes to and compounds the feelings of helplessness and powerlessness that the bereaved parents will feel. Times, Sunday Times
It just hits you like some spiteful virus and down you go, knowing it's crazy but powerless to resist.
In the end, we are all powerless to resist Kidman's allure.
If we can't bring our problems under control, feelings of powerlessness and despair often ensue.
She has stated the impossibility of bringing the presence of the parents into the present moment, the powerlessness of art to deliver such a presence.
Strikes and confrontations have left passengers furious, train companies reeling and the government powerless to sort out the chaos. Times, Sunday Times
Hurtling towards him in the swirling fog was a huge lorry powerless to stop on the icy carriageway.
They know that the mainstream press is in thrall to power and is therefore compromised, thus they're seeking a new path to redress their grievances -- and new antidotes to the poison spread by the powerful to intoxicate the minds and hearts of the powerless. William Astore: The Failure of Our "Free" Press
And when the rare civilities of open political life are curtailed or destroyed, as they so often are, the elementary forms of infrapolitics remain as a defense in depth of the powerless.
Zoe's screams of fear and rage became muffled as he began to engulf her, and she realized how powerless she was in her current state.
Alternatively, they may have had their own justifiable anger repressed when they were powerless to fight back. 50 Ways to Become a Self-Confident Woman
Then the demons arrived, but instead of claws, they attacked us with the twine-cutting hook-rings of a newsvendor, and we were powerless to stop them. Masked
The unity government, which is trying to regain control of the capital, has been powerless to stop the smuggling networks. Times, Sunday Times
Many of them witness terrible crimes that they are powerless to stop. The Sun
Many of them witness terrible crimes that they are powerless to stop. The Sun
The other one looked completely powerless. Times, Sunday Times
The overwhelming feeling is one of powerlessness. Life Without Work
Many of them witness terrible crimes that they are powerless to stop. The Sun
A more sympathetic reading of the trend toward domesticity would see it as a desperate last stand in the face of powerlessness.
Just as in Scandinavia the parasitic rowan is deemed a countercharm to sorcery, so in Germany the parasitic mistletoe is still commonly considered a protection against witch-craft, and in Sweden, as we saw, the mistletoe which is gathered on Midsummer Eve is attached to the ceiling of the house, the horse's stall or the cow's crib, in the belief that this renders the Troll powerless to injure man or beast. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion
The second-youngest of IG Made Sumandra and Asni Anggraini's four children said that she preferred using rallies and lobs to make up for her powerless smashes in winning a point.
Alternatively, they may have had their own justifiable anger repressed when they were powerless to fight back. 50 Ways to Become a Self-Confident Woman
His magic cape in tatters, G-Man is left powerless and alone. Image Comics Sneak Peek for the Week of November 18, 2009 | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News
This hot, urgent quaking, this most unexpected onslaught of the earthiest of passions, was like nothing she had ever in her life expected to feel, and to her own amazement she discovered she was now completely powerless to resist. Shameless
We felt powerless as players because as soon as somebody says something like that and it is read by cricket followers, our names are sullied. The Sun
Of course its a monopoly, and the ACCC is yet again powerless to stop it, or doesn’t want to bother with the battle. Airport Parking Fees Are Rising | Lifehacker Australia
During the eighteenth century the German Catholics had been quite outman uvered by the Protestants, and in the early decades of the nineteenth century found themselves politically powerless. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8: Infamy-Lapparent
They are laughing because, like us, they are powerless to dream up anything better to do.
He feels helpless and powerless to do anything to change things for the better.
But consider the obverse of Acton's terse observation: powerlessness corrupts and absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely.
She was powerless to resist the attraction that she felt to him.
Man stands powerless before the elevator: it has no thoughts, and it has no way of registering our thoughts, our frustrations, or desperate pleadings. In the Valley of the Shadow
The litany of daily miseries suffered by the powerless public of the subcontinent on both sides of the border should make us ask, why?
You become powerless, unable to resist the lure of the repeat button. Times, Sunday Times
We know the next election is ours to lose and feel powerless as we watch it seep away. Times, Sunday Times
This direct approach got the job done much faster than using the appeal channels that are designed to stall you and make you powerless.
[…] Admitting to being powerless is not an admission of defeat, but one of liberation. Stinking Thinking « Tales from the Reading Room
God and/or the king had ordained it, and they were powerless.
We felt powerless as players because as soon as somebody says something like that and it is read by cricket followers, our names are sullied. The Sun
When I look at the situation in Quebec, the anglos and ethnics are politically powerless.
We are powerless to stop the wheel of history.
If the developers decide to put the road on part of the track bed then the town council will be powerless to stop them.
‘I, like the vast majority of mankind, am powerless, voiceless and moneyless,’ he told the leader.
Given the fact that manhood is associated with power, and being powerless is seen as unmanly, violence becomes a means to prove otherwise to others and oneself.
Not only will Republicans be basically powerless, they will also have to endure the ignominy of Bush administration officials and employees testifying under oath before the investgation committees of Waxman, Conyers, Leahy, Boxer, Levin, etc. and proving to everyone just how corrupt, dishonest and malfeasant Bush Republicans have truly been. McCain: Sorry, Five Joint Appearances With Obama Just Won't Do It
Local people feel strongly about the proposed development but are virtually powerless to intervene.
Elsewhere, where Hindus did convert, it was not the hoped-for Brahmins, but the powerless and disenfranchized lower castes and untouchables who made the change.
The imperial court was a secluded world of its own, politically powerless, but well equipped with funds by the governing shoguns to dedicate themselves to fine arts.
He can be self-deprecating, describing himself as ‘powerless and, well, schlumpy’.
Your boyfriend saw you anguished and felt powerless to help. The Sun
They may display nighttime fears, anger, irritability, lower tolerance for stress, nervousness, compulsiveness, helplessness, and/or powerlessness.
We like the needle on the surface, keep turning, turn, a time left in a hurry, powerless.
By most accounts he is headed for a decisive victory that the mainstream parties seem powerless to avert. Times, Sunday Times
The security measures sanctioned by the state serve only to widen the chasm between the powerful and powerless.
The right upper extremity was normal, but weak; there was wrist-drop on the left side and the deltoid was wasted and powerless; on the other hand the fingers could be flexed, and although the elbow could not be, there were signs of returning power in the biceps, and some movements of the shoulder could be performed by the capsular muscles. Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre
For this reason he reserved the right of the state to intervene so that the economically powerless could not be exploited by the economically powerful.
Somebody has to stand up for the powerless and often skint students. The Sun
Yet it happened, and he felt helpless, powerless, and impotent.
The domination that she exerts over her students seems to be an obvious compensation for her powerlessness at home.
The story is mined for symbolic aspects which signify power and powerlessness.
They are not only powerless to stop the trade but culpable. The Sun
Maggie watched powerless as Kate and Joe headed out into the hall, the surprise and disbelief lingering around her like a wraith. FALLEN WOMEN
I just stood there and watched powerlessly, as T.J.'s dad violently struggled to restrain his son from running off.
But unlike the peripheral baboons, who are physically controlled by the dominant ones, the peripheral men are not powerless.
Life satisfaction was explained by whether people had a partner or how subjectively powerless they feltanomie.
This collection is the place to start, even though my favourite story is "The Man Whom the Trees Loved", where a wife finds herself powerless to save her husband from the trees he loves. Kate Mosse's top 10 ghost stories
Do you assert that satire turned against the powerless is good clean fun and not vulgar? Think Progress » National Review ‘symposium’ on black unemployment has no black participants.
Even the most magnificent landscapes are powerless without figures, not forgetting Poussin's Arcadia, were it devoid of the shepherds and the sepulchral inscription.
A significant cause of stress in the workplace is a sense of powerlessness and lack of control.
They were powerless to resist.
They kept floating upwards and at first, even with my weight belt on, I was powerless to stop them.
He felt dizzy, felt simultaneously small and huge, powerful and powerless, dwarfed and ennobled by the might and manageableness of things. THE WOUNDED SKY
And the child was elated because she had been consulted, she didn't feel powerless.
She came to Jackson Hole, Wyo., to speak truth to the confessedly powerless. Telling World's Bankers How it Really Is
In this case they are also powerless to act. The Sun
And then it finally sank in that he was beyond all hope, and that she was powerless to stop him.
I felt we were all powerless, with rubbish pavements that no one fixed. Times, Sunday Times
But the police said they were powerless to deal with them if they hadn't committed a crime.
Your boyfriend saw you anguished and felt powerless to help. The Sun
His stepfather still refuses to speak to him and although his mother would like to help she is powerless. A Roomful of Birds - Scottish short stories 1990
Attempts to re-light the boiler failed, and now the vessel was in real trouble; drifting, powerless, pitching and rolling, driven by wind and tide towards a sandbank in the dark.
People have felt their democratic rights damaged because they have found themselves powerless to influence or affect the outcome in the services that matter most to them. The Global Marketplace
However, the reality is far from ideal in that the principle has been quite often dishonored, mostly in cases involving powerless ordinary people.
Our feeling is one of powerlessness - and that must sooner or later transform into civil unrest - as it should do when democracy is threatened or simply taken by stealth.
He offers you the spectacle of an ironic, intelligent 47-year-old man gazing at Yelena with the dotty helplessness of a moonstruck adolescent: aware of his own absurdity but powerless to prevent it.
The overwhelming feeling is one of powerlessness. Life Without Work
You have to dig awfully deep to get to the hurt and the pain and the powerlessness.
The motorcycle ace won a world title on the all-powerful Honda last year and then celebrated victory by signing for the all-powerless Yamaha.
In a powerless agricultural student all this might have been merely comical; but in an implacable empire-builder it proved lethal. Times, Sunday Times
A Wakefield Council spokeswoman said it shared the frustrations of landowners but it was powerless to act.
She turns her attention away from the commercial aspect, pointing towards the powerlessness that weather instills.
This is bad, for they are already being corrupted by their own power and I fear I'm now powerless to resist - that's why I'm cowering away in this place.
Though he could see them walking towards the chasm, he was powerless to save them.
My tears spill out, I am powerless to stop them.
To not know is bewildering and only contributes to and compounds the feelings of helplessness and powerlessness that the bereaved parents will feel. Times, Sunday Times
While the powerful seem to get away with serious crimes, the powerless commit less serious offences and get prison.
The American people are powerless to stop any of this lunacy.
Your mood swings may be wild and may leave you feeling powerless; your night sweats and insomnia may come with nameless horrors attached. Times, Sunday Times
The upshot is that for the forseable future, the Reserve Bank is essentially powerless.
By most accounts he is headed for a decisive victory that the mainstream parties seem powerless to avert. Times, Sunday Times
Its citizens are economically powerless in their capacity both as workers and as consumers.
Silence, pause, stillness, the impossibility of explanation: all suggest the powerlessness of narrative to fill the 'long blank'.
We like the needle on the surface, keep turning, turn, a time left in a hurry, powerless.
So why are we so powerless to control ourselves? Times, Sunday Times
This would be bad, and inflammatory enough on it own, but when engrafted upon a very angry electorate, people whose good works have been lost in a flash of greed and mismanagement, and who feel powerless, it is like shouting fire in a crowded theatre. Paul Abrams: McCain, Media & Meltdown: A Witches' Brew for Election Violence
Pilots had some control over their fate, which gave them a status above the powerless foot soldiers in the trenches below.
And you feel powerless, unable to regain control of something you own. Times, Sunday Times
But Mr Dempsey rejected the judge's claims that the Government had stymied the commission's work or had left the chairperson powerless.
As a result, the new prime minister, his cabinet and the National Assembly will be virtually powerless.
The students are skint and powerless. The Sun
It uses familiar tropes to re-present teen anguish, suicide and powerlessness.
But this unruly, unforgettable play takes its unpredictable course to something that makes you feel afresh our powerlessness against time. Times, Sunday Times
We like the needle on the surface, keep turning, turn, a time left in a hurry, powerless.
One can say, at any rate, that deformed in his own private life, he became absorbed in what has come to be called the metaphysic of a bureaucratic nightmare in which one is born powerless, accused and self-accused, not knowing of what. The Logic of Franz Kafka
So a supporter is by definition powerless; all he can do is make life hell for people and that, football has long agreed, is his irrefragable right.
It is an order promoting life rather than death, peace rather than terror, self-realization rather than frustration, community rather than alienation and personal opportunity rather than powerlessness. William S. Becker: The Solar Soldier Is No Fad
Children start off powerless and incapable, dependent on the adults around them for their safety and for the fulfillment of every need.
Hundreds of women and children leave the country to earn money abroad, and found themselves on the streets, becoming an easy and powerless victim of souteneurs and pedophiles.
Poverty, social inequities, ignorance, sexism, racism, and unsupportive relationships may render a woman virtually powerless to choose freely.
Councils are powerless to resist these regional targets. The Sun
The unity government, which is trying to regain control of the capital, has been powerless to stop the smuggling networks. Times, Sunday Times
A significant cause of stress in the workplace is a sense of powerlessness and lack of control.
You become powerless, unable to resist the lure of the repeat button. Times, Sunday Times
The villagers are powerless against the armed invaders.
Gangs of older boys acted out their feelings of powerlessness against younger, more vulnerable boys.
The contemporary "avenger" slays, not the merely great, but the good and the inoffensive -- an American President who had struck the chains from millions of slaves; a Russian Czar who against the will and work of his own powerful nobles had freed their serfs; a French President from whom the French people had received nothing but good; a powerless Austrian The Shadow On The Dial, and Other Essays 1909
She was powerless to resist the attraction that she felt to him.
A story panel iterated a simplified version of the story I had told that elided any reference to class inequality or the powerlessness of his position.
And the press would pile on, painting a picture of a luckless, incapacitated campaign, powerless to avoid its approaching doom. O: A Presidential Novel
Because Cassius is yoked to him both in love and their deadly and momentous endeavour, he is a tragic hero too, powerless against the unbending resolve of Brutus to do what philosophy, not opportunity, dictates.
In many respects, as, I have elsewhere intimated, our free political system makes the social outlook here far more promising than in Europe; but larrikinism is a peculiar danger already well above the horizon, against which we seem powerless to deal. Town Life in Australia
This is set to take place on December 19 and the board seems powerless to stop it.
He announced that he was suspending his campaign and flew to Washington to broker a rescue package that in reality he was powerless to bring. Times, Sunday Times

How To Use Powerless In A Sentence

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