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vain English

Meaning vain meaning

What does vain mean?
Definitions in simple English

vain

If you are vain you think about yourself a lot, specially how you look. She was so vain she spent hours looking at herself in the mirror. If something is vain, it means it was not successful. She made a vain attempt to feed the baby carrots, but he kept spitting them out into her face. If something is in vain, it means it happened for no reason or had no purpose. The Prime Minister said that the soldiers killed in the battle did not die in vain. They helped save many innocent people.

vain

(= conceited, egotistical, self-conceited, swollen, swollen-headed) characteristic of false pride; having an exaggerated sense of self-importance a conceited fool 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 (= fruitless, futile, sleeveless) unproductive of success a fruitless search futile years after her artistic peak a sleeveless errand a vain attempt

Synonyms vain synonyms

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Topics vain topics

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Examples vain examples

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Simple sentences

The old lady will often wait for her son in vain at the station.
He tried in vain to solve the problem.
She tried to smile in vain.
He tried in vain to quit smoking.
I tried in vain to persuade them.
It seems that I did it all in vain.
We knocked at the door for five minutes, but in vain.
All our efforts were in vain.
All the doctor's efforts were in vain and the man soon died.
Dick tried to solve the problem, in vain.
I tried in vain to open it.
The boy made vain efforts to reach the shore.
We protested, but it was in vain.
We tried in vain to talk him out of smoking.
I tried to get it, but in vain.
I tried to persuade him, but in vain.
I tried to persuade her in vain.
The authorities are striving in vain to stabilize the currency.
John tried in vain to solve the problem.
All our attempts were in vain.
I made every effort to realize the plan but after all it turned out to be in vain.
We tried in vain to make him change his mind.
He tried in vain to lift up the stone.

Movie subtitles

But if I stop aiming for something, my father will have died in vain.
In 1 793, the 1 st Earl Macartney led an expedition to the Qianlong Emperor, in a vain effort to persuade the Chinese to re-open their empire to trade.
Priests and monks preached in vain.
Although I do not curse you, but wish with all my heart. that you have not sacrificed me and my daughter. whom I have named Victorine after you, in vain.
No one shall seek salvation in vain. God will never lead you astray.
In vain the two lovers tried to hide. But they were discovered. and Leviathan was punished.
In vain he fought the terror that seized him, and fear of things he could not name haunted his restless sleep.
Your sacrifices have not been in vain.
Because it tormented people in vain.
Then for the rest of our lives, we'll feel we've shirked and lived in vain. We must go now.
Sits waiting, not in vain, I pray, for the young couple to step forward and say the words that will definitely establish his innocence.
This year, as every year. there are those that have waited in vain.
In vain.
We have not shed our blood in vain.
But in vain. His troops were annihilated, thanks to my friend, Colonel Yusuf.
To ensure Heinrich's efforts weren't in vain, I'll get Ivan back.
In vain she was telling herself, that it would be madness.
He was a vain, double-crossing heel.
You seem to think of me to be quite vain!
And you know how vain women are.
I want to keep Vain Belle, and Lady Bosun.
We're very vain, you know.
My, aren't we vain.
One thing I am not is vain.
And, gentlemen, our two months have not been in vain.
I know I shall not appeal to his moral sense.. in vain.
Your years of waiting have not been in vain, Hepzibah.
Danny, all your precautions were in vain.
I played them all in vain last night-- I lost everything.
They may think I'm vain but it's a serious matter.
Ahead of me the world, carried by the wind of life, don't cry my dear, those tears, they're all in vain.
I said last month I was searching in vain through antique shops for a rocking chair like Granny had.
Tonight, in my apartment where we sleep on the floor, where we sit on the floor, I've tried in vain to find something to sell.
While suffering insults in vain, I learned to think.

News and current affairs

This was a message for which Britain's European friends had long been hoping, and for which they had waited in vain since Blair's election in 1997.
We must make sure it was not in vain.
England's rulers sought in vain to keep a lid on the greatest explosion of economic energy and financial wealth in human history.
Even the history of the circus is focused on such a pairing: the vain, dignified White Clown and Augustus the Fool, the humble loser who is kicked in the pants by his stiff, pompous partner.
It may inspire virtuous feelings, but its vain symbolism reveals exactly what is wrong with today's feel-good environmentalism.
In short, they fear that all of the sacrifices made for price stability will have been in vain.
NATO soldiers die in vain.
But he makes that legitimate point in vain: having rested its case on misjudgments, the administration now finds itself discredited by its own intelligence estimate.
It is a depressing, pathetic record, which the UN is trying--probably in vain--to redeem by appearing, in the Iraq crisis, as the voice of reason and international legitimacy.
If they succeed in bringing about a national renewal, Bhutto, a monumental political figure in Pakistani history, will not have died in vain.
Were it not for our history, our labor would not just be in vain; it would be impossible.
If you look for a relationship between children's performance on international surveys of achievement, and their countries' growth rates twenty years on, you will look in vain.
Indeed, Kouchner's appointment is likely to demonstrate just how vain a hope humanitarian intervention always was.
If this proves to be the case, perhaps the sailors of the Kursk will not have died in vain.
After the fall of France, Maritain decided to remain in the US, where he happened to find himself after a lecture tour (the Gestapo searched his house outside Paris in vain).
The ever-vain Depardieu (and what actor isn't vain?) will be a god in Russia.
As Argentina's economy lost access to credit in late 2001, the government resorted to desperate measures in a vain attempt to avert disaster.
But their visit to Russia's largest church was not in vain - footage of five women, dressed in glowing dresses and balaclavas while jumping in front of the altar, circulated widely on the Internet.
As Asian innovation comes into its own, the US and other developed countries must find ways to participate - or risk missing the opportunity of the century in a vain bid to recapture bygone supremacy.
Was this, in hindsight, all in vain?
All those young men and women cut down in Paris must not have been slaughtered in vain.
Western politicians' vain attempts to convince Putin that the eastward expansion of NATO and the EU would benefit Russia by creating a zone of peace and prosperity along its borders were naive and insulting.

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