Gratuitous point, empty semantics (8)
I believe the answer is:
needless
'gratuitous' is the definition.
('needless' can be a synonym of 'gratuitous')
'point empty semantics' is the wordplay.
'point' becomes 'needle' (I've seen this before**).
'empty' means to remove the middle letters.
'semantics' with its centre taken out is 'ss'.
'needle'+'ss'='NEEDLESS'
(Other definitions for needless that I've seen before include "Unwanted" , "luxury" , "for no good reason" , "Unnecessary and unwarranted" , "Superfluous" .)