VAIN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Vain

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adjective

Vain adj. (compar. vainer; superl. vainest)

1.

Having no real substance, value, or importance; empty; void; worthless; unsatisfying. "Thy vain excuse." "Every man walketh in a vain show." "Let no man deceive you with vain words." "Vain pomp, and glory of this world, I hate ye!" "Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy."

2.

Destitute of force or efficacy; effecting no purpose; fruitless; ineffectual; as, vain toil; a vain attempt. "Bring no more vain oblations." "Vain is the force of man To crush the pillars which the pile sustain."

3.

Proud of petty things, or of trifling attainments; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason; conceited; puffed up; inflated. "But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren?" "The minstrels played on every side, Vain of their art."

4.

Showy; ostentatious. "Load some vain church with old theatric state."

Synonyms: Empty; worthless; fruitless; ineffectual; idle; unreal; shadowy; showy; ostentatious; light; inconstant; deceitful; delusive; unimportant; trifling.

noun

Vain n. Vanity; emptiness; now used only in the phrase in vain.

For vain. See In vain. (Obs.)

In vain, to no purpose; without effect; ineffectually. " In vain doth valor bleed." " In vain they do worship me."

To take the name of God in vain, to use the name of God with levity or profaneness.

See images of 'Vain'

Etymology of 'Vain'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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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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