Vain

Definition of Vain

Pronunciation: vān

invain.

a.	1.	Having no real substance, value, or importance; empty; void; worthless; unsatisfying. Every man walketh in a vain show. - Ps. xxxix. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain words. - Eph. v. 6. Vain pomp, and glory of this world, I hate ye! - Shak. Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy. - Milton.
	2.	Destitute of force or efficacy; effecting no purpose; fruitless; ineffectual; as, vain toil; a vain attempt. Bring no more vain oblations. - Isa. i. 13. Vain is the force of man To crush the pillars which the pile sustain. - Dryden.
	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? - James ii. 20 (Rev. Ver.). The minstrels played on every side, Vain of their art. - Dryden.
	4.	Showy; ostentatious. Load some vain church with old theatric state. - Pope.
n.	1.	Vanity; emptiness; - now used only in the phrase

For vain
See In vain.

In vain
to no purpose; without effect; ineffectually. - Shak.

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

Related Words

Gascon, absurd, airy, arrogant, asinine, barren, baseless, boastful, boasting, bootlessly, braggart, bragging, catchpenny, cocky, complacent, conceited, consequential, counterproductive, coxcombical, dandyish, delusive, delusory, doomed, effete, egocentric, egoistic, egotistical, etiolated, fanfaron, fanfaronading, fatuitous, fatuous, feckless, flimsy, foolish, foppish, foredoomed, fribble, fribbling, frivolous, frothy, fruitlessly, futilely, gasconading, groundless, haughty, hollow, ill-founded, improperly, in vain, inadequate, inane, ineffective, inefficacious, inoperative, invalid, light, misleading, narcissan, narcissine, narcissistic, narcistic, nugacious, nugatory, of no force, otiose, overproud, overweening, paltry, petty, profitless, proud, puny, self-admiring, self-advertising, self-applauding, self-approving, self-assuming, self-complacent, self-conceited, self-congratulating, self-congratulatory, self-content, self-contented, self-delighting, self-endeared, self-esteeming, self-flattering, self-glorious, self-gratulating, self-gratulatory, self-important, self-lauding, self-loving, self-respecting, self-satisfied, self-sufficient, self-vaunting, shallow, silly, slender, slight, smug, sterile, stuck-up, superficial, thrasonic, thrasonical, trifling, trite, unavailable, unbased, unfounded, ungrounded, unproductive, unprofitable, unsuccessful, unsuccessfully, unsupportable, unsupported, unsustainable, unsustained, untenable, unwarranted, vacuous, vainglorious, vainly, vaporing, vaunting, void, windy, without basis, without foundation, worthless

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