What does it mean to be a little vain?

1 : having or showing undue or excessive pride in one’s appearance or achievements : conceited. 2 : marked by futility or ineffectualness : unsuccessful, useless vain efforts to escape. 3 : having no real value : idle, worthless vain pretensions.

How do you use the word vain?

Vain sentence example

1. The child tried in vain to keep up.
2. He tried in vain to stop the water flow.
3. The proprietors struggled in vain to bring about a closer union.
4. The convict tried in vain to escape several times from prison.
5. In a vain attempt to lose some weight, I have taken to reading the labels on the food I buy.

Is Vain a positive word?

But having followed Fitzgerald through his explorations of the possible difference in old and new meanings of vain, I think it’s fair to say that neither older meanings of vain (“fruitless, useless, empty, false”) nor the newer ones (“love of show, desire of applause or admiration”) can reasonably be described as …

What is an example of vain?

The definition of vain is someone or something without value, without force or who is conceited. An example of vain is a promise that someone doesn’t intend to keep. An example of vain is an attempt to prune a bush only to have it removed the following day.

What does it mean to be in vain?

proceeding from or showing pride in or concern about one’s appearance, qualities, etc.; resulting from or displaying vanity: He made some vain remarks about his accomplishments.

What’s the difference between a vain and a vane?

And some idioms in the same vein. What to Know. Vane almost exclusively refers to a piece of metal that spins on an axis, like a weather vane. The homophone vain is typically an adjective meaning “prideful” or “conceited,” but is also heard in the phrase in vain, meaning “tried without success” or “pointless.”.

What kind of person is vain and conceited?

A vain person could be rude or just plain old mean. People who are vain and conceited rub people the wrong way. They think they’re better than everyone else, so they don’t feel a need to be liked by the “lesser” people of the world. They may insult and belittle people with no apologies.

How did Fonda use the word’vain’?

Fonda tried in vain to convince Jarrow and Archer to ditch the project. At his purposes with regard to the relations of England and Normandy it would be vain to guess. In vain my mother took a world of trouble to explain the thing to me.