[
US
/ˈveɪn/
]
[ UK /vˈeɪn/ ]
[ UK /vˈeɪn/ ]
ADJECTIVE
-
characteristic of false pride; having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
so swollen by victory that he was unfit for normal duty
an egotistical disregard of others
vain about her clothes
a conceited fool
an attitude of self-conceited arrogance
growing ever more swollen-headed and arbitrary -
unproductive of success
a vain attempt
a sleeveless errand
a fruitless search
futile years after her artistic peak
How To Use vain In A Sentence
- But try telling that to the little old lady who has waited in vain a couple of years for a vital eye operation.
- Finishing the mission so our troops will not have died in vain is the most screwed up thing I have ever heard. Think Progress » 9%.
- Marshals struggled in vain to prevent spectators rushing onto the racetrack.
- Either switch to decaffeinated tea or coffee or herbal infusions like vervain, mint or camomile.
- Mordred and Agravaine propose to call the guileless Arthur's attention to Guenever and Sir A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- Last week, exultant rebels in Tripoli clambered on Gaddafi's vainglorious statue of an American warplane in the grip of a mighty Libyan fist.
- At the beginning of the play, we see Lear as a proud, vain, quick-tempered old king, not necessarily evil, but certainly not good.
- I tried in vain to start a conversation.
- Nothing that we do, is done in vain. I believe, with all my soul, that we shall see triumph. Charles Dickens
- But this belongs to vainglory, which is opposed to magnanimity, as stated above (Q. 131, A. 2). Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province
