Sisyphean    (pronounced sis-uh-fee-un) adjective


Definition

resembling or suggesting the labors of Sisyphus (pronounced sis-uh-fus) in their futility, uselessness, impossibility, or bleakness; endless and utterly laborious.

[In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a cruel and greedy king of Corinth condemned eternally to roll a heavy stone up a hill, only to have it always roll down again.]

(Note: SISYPHEAN is sometimes confused with SISSIFIED which means having the characteristics of a sissy.)

Main Example

  • The use of performance enhancing drugs in sports is once again in the news, following several athletes testing positive for the previously undetectable illegal steroid called THG. Authorities admit that keeping top-level sports drug free could turn out to be a Sisyphean objective because, by the time tests are devised to detect a particular steroid, purveyors of performance enhancing drugs engineer yet another new illegal substance!

    Workplace Examples

  • Let me warn you, trying to unite those two groups is going to be an utterly futile, Sisyphean exercise! They are separated by a deep ideological divide that cannot be bridged.

    Emphasize Your Point in Just Three Sentences.

  • Looks like Merle has turned into a Sisyphus! Week after week, he has combed through that roomful of old documents and files without luck. I suppose "giving up" is not in his vocabulary.

    Other Examples

  • your telling a colleague: "I'll make a couple of attempts. If it works, fine. If not, I'll move on to something else. I certainly won't keep at it eternally, like some Sisyphus."

  • seeing the look of skepticism on everyone's face, your assuring them that the plan you have just presented is not some Sisyphean task because other companies have tried that approach with success

  • in recent speeches, both Don Rumsfeld and Sen. Robert Byrd implying that the goal of killing every terrorist on the planet is a Sisyphean one

    © 2004 V.J. Singal

    This Month's Other Words

    Disjunction
    Detritus
    Artful and Inartful
    Embittered
    Forestall
    Dispassionate
    Specter

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