vane vs vain vs vein
Definitions
noun
- a fin attached to the tail of an arrow, bomb or missile in order to stabilize or guide it
- the flattened weblike part of a feather consisting of a series of barbs on either side of the shaft
- flat surface that rotates and pushes against air or water
- mechanical device attached to an elevated structure; rotates freely to show the direction of the wind
Examples
Murray begins his survey at 800 B.C., arguing that innovation before then had been more species-wide than individual and had tended largely to evanesce rather than become established, other than in China.
My favorite load for turkeys is Beman ICS Hunter arrows fletched with Bonning Blazer vanes and tipped with Vortex Pro-Series 100 grain 2.25 broadheads.
This piece serves as a substantial conjurer of what we might term the castrati-c imagination through its vivid representation of the materiality of sound as music, and one that locates this sound visually in a manner that does not oppose it to its evanescence, its temporality.
Definitions
adjective
- characteristic of false pride; having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
- unproductive of success
Examples
But try telling that to the little old lady who has waited in vain a couple of years for a vital eye operation.
The gods are dispassionate, jealous, vainly superior, and sometimes unfair and bitter.
Finishing the mission so our troops will not have died in vain is the most screwed up thing I have ever heard.
Definitions
verb
- make a veinlike pattern
noun
- one of the horny ribs that stiffen and support the wing of an insect
- a distinctive style or manner
- any of the vascular bundles or ribs that form the branching framework of conducting and supporting tissues in a leaf or other plant organ
- a layer of ore between layers of rock
- a blood vessel that carries blood from the capillaries toward the heart
Examples
My body absorbed that ability as well; my veins are internally hardened against acids.
I could perceive no trace of a metallic vein, so thoroughly had it been worked out, but scattered over the hillside with schist, talcose slate, and fragments of quartz, was a great deal of scoriae, showing that metal of some kind had been excavated, and that the smelting had been done on the spot.
There is an experiment, which seems to evince this venous absorption, which consists in the external application of a stimulus to the lips, as of vinegar, by which they become instantly pale; that is, the bibulous mouths of the veins by this stimulus are excited to absorb the blood faster, than it can be supplied by the usual arterial exertion.
