Western diplomats said the latest proposal seemed like a doomed attempt to buy time.

Amanda wheeled on her captor in what she knew to be a doomed attempt at bravado.

But it wouldn't be the first time Cameron got himself in trouble with a doomed attempt at being lighthearted.

Corruption, ignorance, a doomed attempt, a dying world, they said.

Not to be outdone, the next week another player engaged in a doomed attempt to dive out of bounds to save a loose ball.

Is that a doomed attempt to measure the unmeasurable?

When my parents visited, I pointed him out from a distance on the street, in some doomed attempt to help them understand: "See.

The other Rodan, in a doomed attempt to save its mate, flies into the mouth of the volcano as well.

Twenty-three years ago, they had been lost in a doomed attempt to try and reach the Gamma quadrant.

The magic is a sort of metaphor for the unprivileged life: the doomed attempt to gain power, to be impressive, to dominate the world.