How to Use vain in a Sentence

vain

adjective

• He is the vainest man I know.
• Volunteers searched the area in the vain hope of finding clues.
• A vain effort to quell the public's fears only made matters worse.
• She is very vain about her appearance.
• Despite years of trying in vain, the pair had yet to have a child.
  — Nathan Smith, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Nov. 2023
• And, as the old church folk would say, our living shall not be in vain.
  — Danté Stewart, CNN, 18 Feb. 2022
• But attempts by the sun to warm up the region will largely be in vain.
  — Gerry Díaz, San Francisco Chronicle, 2 Nov. 2022
• In vain, the fans hollered for their team to rally in the final seconds.
  — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Oct. 2021
• Smith said she home-schooled Kameron and doesn’t want his death to be in vain.
  — Alexis Stevens, ajc, 1 Dec. 2022
• Coming down here and making a choice to play was supposed to not be in vain.
  — Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY, 25 Aug. 2020
• Their calls for air support, which may have saved their lives, were in vain.
  — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 24 June 2021
• For nearly as long, the rest have tried mostly in vain to compete.
  — Laura Forman, WSJ, 19 June 2020
• When that wait proved to be mostly in vain, Hatch prepared to move on.
  — Los Angeles Times, 17 Feb. 2022
• That struggle may not be in vain, if the self that survives it is the authentic one.
  — Judith Thurman, The New Yorker, 11 Sep. 2023
• Ravipudi told the parents that their daughter did not die in vain.
  — Los Angeles Times, 10 Jan. 2022
• Search teams tried in vain but never found Sisof or her body.
  — Mark Thiessen, Anchorage Daily News, 27 Aug. 2020
• This time, the poll workers denied them, and men smoked cigars in a vain effort to drive them away.
  — Grant Segall, cleveland.com, 22 July 2017
• That effort was in vain, as were most attempts to up my daily step count.
  — Erika Veurink, Vogue, 9 Jan. 2024
• For vain people like me, these are more like threats than a set of disparate options.
  — Ashley Weatherford, The Cut, 19 June 2017
• This isn't to say that a commitment to the Facebook boycott is in vain.
  — Michelle Santiago Cortés, refinery29.com, 29 June 2020
• Paramedics then tried in vain to revive him before pronouncing him dead at the scene.
  — City News Service, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Apr. 2021
• Now, Putin argues that death on the battlefield means a life not lived in vain.
  — Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 22 Aug. 2023
• Start making an effort to reach such a place -- your efforts shouldn't be in vain.
  — Chicago Tribune, 27 June 2022
• Cooper also expressed hope that the deaths of his mother and Green will not be in vain.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 3 July 2021
• Crews also attempted dredging around the hull of the big boat, but that effort was in vain as well.
  — Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 17 Apr. 2022
• Of course, being a vain person, that's very important to me.
  — Hadley Keller, House Beautiful, 6 Dec. 2019
• Neither is the vain hope that the U.S. can beat China at its own game.
  — Eyck Freymann, Fortune, 24 Mar. 2021
• The loss meant Stephon Huderson's big night was in vain.
  — Rod Walker, NOLA.com, 16 Oct. 2020
• Thousands more waited in vain outside the airport, many of them standing for hours in a sewage canal.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 30 Aug. 2021
• Thomas' family hopes the changes in the law will save lives and ensure their daughter's death wasn't in vain.
  — Farnoush Amiri, ajc, 2 Sep. 2022

Last Updated: 24 Apr 2024