How to use 折角 in a sentence?

Translations include “with trouble, going through the trouble, on purpose, etc…” It also says it’s a noun and an adverb.

Usually, I hear it being used as an intensifier, both in positive and negative situations. “Since I/you went through the trouble of”, “Even though I/you went through the trouble of”

「せっかく来てくれたので、ゆっくりしていてください。」
「せっかく痩せたのに、チョコレートを食べ過ぎちゃった…」(edit: full disclosure: my wife JUST said that as I was writing this post)

As a noun, I only heard it used as 「せっかくだから、…」(since I/we’ve been through so much trouble, I/we may as well …)
Other usage are listed by Kotobank, but I don’t know much about them (it seems to mean “a lot of troubles/efforts” in that case)

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「せっかく」は、「せっかく…のに」「せっかく…だから」「せっかくの…」などという言い方で、努力してそのことをしたのだから、それが無駄にならないようにという気持ちを表わす。また「せっかくの…だが」「せっかくではあるが」などの形で、相手の頼み、申し出などを断る場合に使う。他に、「せっかくの休みに雨が降る」など、たまにしかない機会が無駄になる事態を惜しむ気持ちを表わすこともある。「折角」とも当てる。

English: Sekkaku is used in the expressions sekkaku… no ni, sekkaku … dakara, sekkaku no…, and expresses a feeling that since an effort has been made to do something, it should not be wasted. In the form sekkaku no … da ga or sekkaku de wa aru ga, it is used to refuse the other person’s request or proposal. Also, in expressions like sekkaku no yasumi ni ame ga furu (‘just when we had a holiday it rained’) it expresses regret at a situation where a rare opportunity is wasted. Also written 折角.

From 類語例解辞典

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so it’s basically when someone goes through the trouble of doing something. You use it as a word… for example

折角、晩御飯を作ったのに、だれにも食べないのかい?

Did I get it right?

I guess it would be 折角晩御飯を作ったから、誰も食べてくれないのかい?
or 一緒に食べないのかい? based on what you mean exactly.

But yes, something like that anyway.

Now that I was typing it… It does seem to not make sense ~

申し出などを断る場合に使うって想像もつきません
例文ありますか?

まぁ例えば 「せっかくですが遠慮します」という感じですね。
ちょっと硬い表現だとみえるけど、そんなに珍しくなさそうです。

なるほど、勉強になりました!!

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