徒労

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 徒労, read とろう, denotes effort that consumes time and energy but produces no intended result.
• Basic usage: It describes a long search yielding nothing and effort being wasted through poor preparation.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Effort without useful result
  • It means time and effort were spent but failed to produce the intended result, not that no attempt was made.