VAIN in a Sentence

Learn VAIN from example sentences; some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

231 example sentences for VAIN, such as:

1. An old dog barks not in vain.
2. They waited in vain for a response.
3. He still reasoned with her, but in vain.
4. I tried in vain to start a conversation.
5. I think he is shallow, vain and untrustworthy.

Free Online Vocabulary Test
K12, SAT, GRE, IELTS, TOEFL
 Input your word:
Want to search a word in classic works?
Search Classic Quotes
 Meanings and Examples of VAIN
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
vain
 a.  having no real substance, value, or importance; empty; void; worthless; unsatisfying
Classic Sentence: (210 in 15 pages)
1  He had toiled painfully down the ravine, and on to this little elevation, in the vain hope of seeing some signs of water.
A Study In Scarlet By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In PART II: CHAPTER I. ON THE GREAT ALKALI PLAIN
2  Only after weeks of vain effort did the right idea occur to somebody-namely, to utilise the force of gravity.
Animal Farm By George Orwell
Context  Highlight   In Chapter VI
3  It was in vain for Bounderby to bluster or to assert himself in any of his explosive ways; Mrs. Sparsit was resolved to have compassion on him, as a Victim.
Hard Times By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER XVI
4  It is a dangerous thing to see anything in the sphere of a vain blusterer, before the vain blusterer sees it himself.
Hard Times By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 3: CHAPTER VIII
5  The leaders of the mercenaries received a donation in gold; an argument the most persuasive to their minds, and without which all others would have proved in vain.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XV
6  It was in vain that he attempted to dazzle her with the prospect of a visionary throne.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XVIII
7  Athelstane, it is true, was vain enough, and loved to have his ears tickled with tales of his high descent, and of his right by inheritance to homage and sovereignty.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XVIII
8  It was in vain that Cedric expostulated with his guards, who had too many good reasons for their silence to be induced to break it either by his wrath or his expostulations.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXI
9  He is vain, Isaac, and he is covetous; at least he needs money to supply his profusion.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXIII
10  His bravery has my thanks," returned the lady; "although it be the will of Heaven that it should be displayed in vain.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XLII
11  Rowena alone, too proud to be vain, paid her greeting to her deliverer with a graceful courtesy.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XLII
12  One half of those vain follies were puffed into mine ear by that perfidious Abbot Wolfram, and you may now judge if he is a counsellor to be trusted.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XLII
13  The Judges had now been two hours in the lists, awaiting in vain the appearance of a champion.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XLIII
14  It will be readily believed that Mrs. Norris did not write to her sister in vain.
Mansfield Park By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER I
15  He still reasoned with her, but in vain.
Mansfield Park By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER IX
Example Sentence: (21 in 2 pages)
1  Money spent on the brain is never spent in vain.
2  He tried in vain to bring his temper under control.
3  I tried in vain to start a conversation.
4  An old dog barks not in vain.
5  The drafting committee worked through the night in a vain attempt to finish on schedule.
6  A seemingly endless line of trucks waits in vain to load up.
7  The doctors gave him more powerful drugs in the vain hope that he might recover.
8  They waited in vain for a response.
9  I think he is shallow, vain and untrustworthy.
10  Israel, with our help, has the weapons of mass destruction for which Bush looked in vain in Iraq.
11  John was out of the town, it was a vain undertaking for us to attempt to catch him.
12  The attorney came up with several far-fetched arguments in a vain attempt to buttress his weak case.
13  One day, however, as she put away her account-book and unfolded her embroidery, she suddenly took her up thus -- "Georgiana, a more vain and absurd animal than you was certainly never allowed to cumber the earth."
14  The amateur detective Dupin saw him purloin the letter for which the police had search in vain.
15  The passions may rage furiously, like true heathens, as they are; and the desires may imagine all sorts of vain things: but judgment shall still have the last word in every argument, and the casting vote in every decision.