Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not yielding the desired outcome; fruitless.
- adjective Lacking substance or worth.
- adjective Having or showing excessive pride in one's appearance or accomplishments; conceited.
- adjective Archaic Foolish.
- idiom (in vain) To no avail; without success.
- idiom (in vain) In an irreverent or disrespectful manner.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having no real value or importance; worthless; unsubstantial; empty; trivial; idle.
- Producing no good result; destitute of force or efficacy; fruitless; ineffectual; useless; futile; unavailing.
- Light-minded; foolish; silly.
- Proud of petty things or of trifling attainments or accomplishments; elated with a high opinion of one's personal appearance, manners, or the like; courting the admiration or applause of others; conceited; self-complacent; also, proceeding from or marked by such pride or conceit: as, to be vain of one's figure or one's dress.
- Showy; ostentatious; pretentious.
- Bootless, abortive.
- See
egotism .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Vanity; emptiness; -- now used only in the phrase in vain.
- noun [Obs.] See In vain.
- noun to no purpose; without effect; ineffectually.
- noun to use the name of God with levity or profaneness.
- adjective Having no real substance, value, or importance; empty; void; worthless; unsatisfying.
- adjective Destitute of force or efficacy; effecting no purpose; fruitless; ineffectual.
- adjective Proud of petty things, or of trifling attainments; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason; conceited; puffed up; inflated.
- adjective Showy; ostentatious.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective overly proud of oneself, especially when concerning appearance
- adjective having very little
substance - adjective effecting no purpose; pointless,
futile .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective unproductive of success
- adjective characteristic of false pride; having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word vain.
Examples
-
_Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain_.
Daily Strength for Daily Needs Mary W. Tileston
-
For people that claim to know God I hope you know that taking the name of God in vain is sin.
-
So quoting the taking of the Lord's name in vain is okay in movie reviews, but hell is off-limits.
Archive 2008-12-01 2008
-
So quoting the taking of the Lord's name in vain is okay in movie reviews, but hell is off-limits.
-
GAH!!!! to many tildas, for the love of christ (thats not taking it in vain is it?), why … ..
-
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%. 2006
-
Tiny Smurfs scatter and run in vain from the whistling bombs, before being felled by blast waves and fiery explosions.
-
Tiny Smurfs scatter and run in vain from the whistling bombs, before being felled by blast waves and fiery explosions.
Archive 2005-10-01 2005
-
"If, as it must be, what I have said, 'in vain,' is really the fact"
-
Jesus shall come to effect, by His presence (Isa 11: 4; Da 7: 17), that which in vain is looked for, in His absence, by other means.
pradyumnaojha commented on the word vain
A sociable person does not posses a vain personality.
February 15, 2013