How to use vain in a sentence

Examples of vain by meaning

More sentences with vain

• Their efforts were in vain and he succumbed to his injuries.From the entry in vain
• His taking the name of God in vain was considered blasphemous.From the entry blasphemous
• I felt around in my pockes for my keyring in vain.From the entry feel around
• He was vain about his specialness until he realized he was really very common.From the entry specialness
• The policeman waited for a heartbeat in vain.From the entry heartbeat
• You might search in vain if you go looking for personification in his works: his style was very concrete.From the entry personification
• This petition is the reverse side of the commandment against taking God's name in vain.2015, Kent Gramm, The Prayer of Jesus: A Reading of the Lord’s Prayer, page 69. From the entry in vain
• It didn't matter whether we traveled with a fiery-tempered swordstress, or a vain Trickster God.2013, Anthony Mercier, Akin Minds, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 172. From the entry swordstress
• It was Chauncey DeGrandis, lord of the manor, trying in vain to assert his lord-dom.2013, Alex Bledsoe, Swords Are My Business. From the entry lorddom
• Why do you run the risk, knowing that it is all in vain?”2012, Margarita Borkaev, Far Away Run the Roads, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 157. From the entry run the risk
• He scanned the horizon to the south, searching in vain for the eggbeater.2008, George Galdorisi, Thomas Phillips, Leave No Man Behind: The Saga of Combat Search and Rescue. From the entry eggbeater
• The most vain of the Assistants, she knows she's beautiful and let it know to the world.2001 December 3, OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol, “AHSM Storytellers, Profiles”, in alt.hentai.sailor-moon (Usenet). From the entry perfection
• He attempts in vain to convey to the robbers that his nasal passages are impenetrably blocked.1998 June 6, Amzug [pseudonym], “The Music of Falling To Sleep With a Drippy Nose **SUGAR**”, in rec.arts.poems (Usenet), archived from…. From the entry horrificity
• It was a little vain, perhaps, but the notion of cronehood sent me immediately to my mirror.1997, David, Leigh Eddings, Polgara the Sorceress, Del Ray, published 1999, →ISBN, pages 142–143. From the entry cronehood
• Lenin had sat in Kuokkala, waiting in vain for the second wave.1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by H. T. Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 182. From the entry hothouse
• These people now have the gall to take Harvey's name in vain.1979 August 11, John Kyper, “Gay Shame!”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 4, page 5. From the entry with friends like these, who needs enemies
• As doctors tried in vain to save April's right eye, news stories frothed at her assailant.1962 April 25, “Riding Crime's Crest”, in Time. From the entry froth
• These would-be immortals are revealed as frail and vain beings at every utterance.1957, Industrial Society, volumes 39-40, page 31. From the entry disillusionary
• Vain, helpless deathling! thou that seek'st for fame By hurling filth at an eternal name.1934, Algernon Sydney Logan, The Mirror of a Mind: The image of air, Saul, The last crusade, page 150. From the entry deathling
• In vain did the promoters of the new fad invoke plausible arguments.1928 July 8, “Lizards and Snakes for Gowns, Gloves and Automobile Cushions; Eight Thousand Java Lizards Trapped in the Island Jungle, and…. From the entry snakephobia
• Nervousness, fatigue, brain-exhaustion . . . had her fight against them been vain?1927, Edith Wharton, 'Twilight Sleep', Virago: London, 1996, p. 114. From the entry Taylorize
• "They are too vain and frivolous—especially the pink-and-white ones," he added, unkindlily.1915, James Branch Cabell, The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck: A Comedy of Limitations. From the entry unkindlily
• Vain Delight must have lost her freshness, and be older and more pinchbeck.1912, Esther Willard Bates, Pageants and Pageantry, page 237. From the entry pinchbeck
• The newspaper placards that had cried "wolf!" so often, cried "wolf!" now in vain.1907, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter II, in The War in the Air: […], London: George Bell and Sons, published 1908, →OCLC. From the entry cry wolf
• In vain he protested and claimed the protection of Louis XIV.1906, Marie Hay, A German Pompadour. From the entry gangrened
• In an internet-dominated world where vain techlords rule us by whim, sovereign governments seem reduced to the role of rearguard guerrillas.2025 October 4, Van Badham, “In a world where techlords rule us by whim, Australia’s stance against deepfakes is reason to celebrate”, in…. From the entry whim
• Too pretty for them (“she must be vain”).2015, Jen Hatmaker, Ms. Understood: Rebuilding the Feminine Equation. From the entry Christiany
• I begged, prayed, would have kneeled to him: But all was in vain: The tyger-hearted man, as Mr.2014, Samuel Richardson, Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Richardson (Illustrated). From the entry foredoor
• A vain and arbitrary search for a needle in a haystack, that's exactly what it always seemed to be like.2012, Håkan Nesser, Münster's Case, An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery. From the entry police work
• Wyan tried in vain to save painted lady Sallie Talbot.2011, Jan MacKell, Red Light Women of the Rocky Mountains, page 348. From the entry painted lady
• In vain are they trying now to pragmatise it; In vain because, in so doing, the flame dies away.2010, S.S. Bhatti, Songs of the Soul, →ISBN, page 243. From the entry pragmatise
• Hollywood honchos courted her, flattered her, showered her with gifts—and took her name in vain behind her back.2010, William J. Mann, How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood 1941-1981, Faber & Faber, →ISBN, page 55. From the entry take someone's name in vain
• So to the sea I would go, and to New Providence, in a vain attempt to outdistance my own adumbration.2005, Christopher John Farley, chapter 7, in Kingston by Starlight: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Three Rivers Press, Crown Publishing Group…. From the entry adumbration
• It is thus vain to hope that the history of the primordia can be reduced to the progress of archeological investigation.1997 [1991], Alexandre Grandazzi, translated by Jane Marie Todd, The Foundation of Rome: Myth and History, →ISBN, page 33. From the entry primordium
• I am omniscient and omnipotent, extremely vain, and, what is more, I come in a handy self-carrying package.1992, Douglas Adams, chapter 17, in Mostly Harmless (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), page 155. From the entry omniscient
• I took your name in vain, Mr.1977, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly, Oversight of Antitrust…. From the entry take someone's name in vain
• We sigh in vain in South Africa for psychologists who are expert Bantologists or for Bantologists who are expert psychologists.1963, Journal of the Royal African Society. From the entry Bantologist

Meaning of vain

1. adjective Overly proud of oneself, especially concerning appearance; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason.
2. adjective Having no real substance, value, or importance; empty; void; worthless; unsatisfying.
3. adjective Effecting no purpose; pointless, futile.

Full definition of vain

More about vain

• Meaning of vain
• Synonyms of vain
• Vain in Hindi
• Vain in Sanskrit
• Vain in Persian

Questions about vain in a sentence

How do you use vain in a sentence?

Vain is used as an adjective and verb. For example: “Their efforts were in vain and he succumbed to his injuries.”

What is a short sentence with vain?

“vain toil a vain attempt”

What does vain mean?

Vain means overly proud of oneself, especially concerning appearance; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason.