vain

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“
Vain was all philosophical reasoning--vain all fortitude--vain, vain, a reliance on probable good.

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Definitions (21)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. adjective Not yielding the desired outcome; fruitless: a vain attempt.
  2. adjective Lacking substance or worth: vain talk.
  3. adjective Excessively proud of one's appearance or accomplishments; conceited.
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Examples (50)

  • Then let us not think benevolence was enjoined in vain, which is to conduct us to such immortal felicities As Marion spoke these words, his countenance, which in general was melancholy, caught an animation beyond the reader's fancy to conceive. —  The Life of General Francis Marion
  • The savage read her heart—he knew that the white woman never intercedes in vain, and that no victim falls when sanctified by her tears. —  Wild Western Scenes
  • I think I never in all my life felt so keen a sense of utter dependence upon a higher Power, or understood so thoroughly how “vain is the help of man,” than when, in the seclusion of my own room, the events of the night passed in review before me. —  Memories
  • What the Teutsch Ritters strove for in vain, and lost their existence in striving for, the shifty Kurfurst has now got: Ducal Prussia, which is also called East Prussia, is now a free sovereignty,--and will become as "Royal" as the other Polish part. —  History of Friedrich II of Prussia
  • Never before had the infantry waited for him in vain, and it was not going to happen now. —  Panzer Aces
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

foolish ·  selfish ·  futile ·  false ·  weak ·  frivolous ·  ignorant ·  ambitious ·  arrogant ·  eager
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French, from Latin vānus, empty; see euə- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English vain, vayn, vein, veyn, from Old French (and F.) vain = Provencal van, va = Catalan va = Spanish vano = Portuguese vão = Italian vano, from Latin vanus, empty, void, fig. idle, fruitless: of persons, idle, deceptive, ostentatious, vain; perhaps orig. *vacnus, and so akin to L. vacuus, empty: see vacuous, vacant. Some suggest a connection with English wane, want, wan-; but this is improbable. Hence (from Latin vanus) also English vanish, vanity, vaunt, evanish, evanesce, etc.
 

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/veɪn/
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