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Vain   /veɪn/   Listen
Vain

adjective
(compar. vainer; superl. vainest)
1.
Characteristic of false pride; having an exaggerated sense of self-importance.  Synonyms: conceited, egotistic, egotistical, self-conceited, swollen, swollen-headed.  "An attitude of self-conceited arrogance" , "An egotistical disregard of others" , "So swollen by victory that he was unfit for normal duty" , "Growing ever more swollen-headed and arbitrary" , "Vain about her clothes"
2.
Unproductive of success.  Synonyms: bootless, fruitless, futile, sleeveless.  "Futile years after her artistic peak" , "A sleeveless errand" , "A vain attempt"



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"Vain" Quotes from Famous Books



... the lawyer who had accompanied them insisted that they were only doing what his client had a legal right to ask them to do; in vain that he urged them to enter on the property regardless of those who tried to ...
— Ralph Gurney's Oil Speculation • James Otis

... and tried to prevent us. But Lady Georgina, seizing both wrists, held him tight as in a vice with her dear skinny old hands. He writhed and struggled all in vain: he could not escape her. 'I've often spanked you, Bertie,' she cried, 'and if you attempt to interfere, I'll spank you again; that's the long and the short ...
— Miss Cayley's Adventures • Grant Allen

... lustre of her husband's fame, and to find other women envious of her, was to Augustine a new harvest of pleasures; but it was the last gleam of conjugal happiness. She first wounded her husband's vanity when, in spite of vain efforts, she betrayed her ignorance, the inelegance of her language, and the narrowness of her ideas. Sommervieux's nature, subjugated for nearly two years and a half by the first transports of love, now, in ...
— At the Sign of the Cat and Racket • Honore de Balzac

... that had drunk the blood of Lovejoy, the Anti-Slavery martyr. I felt that that fact ought to inspire him. I was disappointed. Mr. Lincoln's speech was altogether colorless. It was an argument, able but perfectly cold. It was largely technical. There was no sentiment in it. Lovejoy had died in vain so far as that address was concerned. I am free to say that I was led to doubt whether Mr. Lincoln was then in hearty sympathy with any movement looking to the freedom of the slave, and this impression was not afterwards wholly removed from ...
— The Abolitionists - Together With Personal Memories Of The Struggle For Human Rights • John F. Hume

... tried again to open the door, exerting all her strength in pulling upon the latch, but all in vain. They were finally obliged to give up the attempt ...
— Mary Erskine • Jacob Abbott


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