vain
Example Sentences
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The question of who is more vain, women or men, didn’t use to be a question.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
It all looked to be in vain as they slumped to 82-8 in the 15th over of their chase of 162 to beat Yorkshire at Headingley in Wednesday's quarter-final.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
In vain, officials have urged locals to avoid the beaches -- exposed areas that offer no protection from Russian aerial barrages.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Woody can be bossy and controlling, jealous and vain.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
“Not your vain spirit, but your serious spirit.—If one leads you wrong, I am sure the other tells you of it.”
From "Emma" by Jane Austen
But are vainer men than me really cultivating their monobrows?
From The Guardian ● May 3, 2017
You might even be vainer for some people might by the label in the belief that is better quality and thus a better value.
From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2016
For clients who are vainer about their hearing than their eyesight, Otarion, Inc., Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., has designed a hearing aid housed in standard, horn-rimmed glasses.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ulape had two boxes of earrings, for she was vainer than I, and when she put them into her baskets, she drew a thin mark with blue clay across her nose and cheekbones.
From "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell
To wander from our destined tracks— There cannot be a vainer wish; But this Empedocles of wax, That melted in chafing-dish Was truly not a greater fool Than he of whom we read at school.
From A Hundred Fables of La Fontaine by Billinghurst, Percy J.
This vainest of Falstaffs is a genuine slob whom Boritt houses in a shabby bachelor pad wallpapered in purple zebra stripes.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 15, 2021
For years D.C. had the vainest of owners, but he was balanced by Bobby Beathard and Joe Gibbs, two deft managers of ego — both theirs and others.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 13, 2013
Unexpectedly, he discovers in Sondra Finchley, beautiful heiress, a sweetheart who will fulfill his dearest, vainest dreams.
From Time Magazine Archive
But now we know which is the vainest.
From Time Magazine Archive
The vainest, most slap-happy and irreverent of men, in the presence of redwoods, goes under a spell of wonder and respect.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
Vocabulary lists containing vain
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act I
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Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" (1863)
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