She made a vain effort to force a smile on her contracted lips, and sitting down before her desk she said: "One moment; I have some papers here I want to burn.
Like those dervish fanatics who find ecstasy in vertigo, so thought, turning on itself, exhausted by the stress of introspection and tired of vain effort, falls terror-stricken.
Shall I tell you that when you left me in anger I shut myself up to read your first letters; that there is a favorite waltz that I never played in vain when I felt too keenly the suffering caused by your presence?
Then I tried in vain to guess what was passing in her heart.
In vain I tried to think of some means of forcing her to enlighten me; for such power I would have given all I possessed.
The worst result of all our vain misery is that it tempts us to forget Thee.
His writing is but the vain froth of a nauseous life.
This conception, formulated by theorists who delighted in abstract notions, has been shown to lead directly into devious paths of metaphysics and ethics; it has, consequently, been fertile of much vain disquisition.
Observe, ye vain and frivolous, how vanity and crime harmonise.
This instinct seems to be deeper and more wide-spread than that which induces some people to leave their names or other sign manual--the frothiest efflorescence of vain moments--on the places they visit.
Our efforts must be directed, not to the vain attempt to repress the energies of women, but to the larger task of improving the conditions of life, and so diminishing the tendency to criminality among both sexes alike.
Twelve maintained to the end a cynical and theatrical attitude; these were vain individuals, often with some pretensions to literary ability; Lacenaire is the type of them.
In vain the officer represented to Bartolomeo that he could not see the First Consul without having previously requested an audience in writing; the Italian insisted that the soldier should go to Bonaparte.
At last, weary of vain efforts, his soul filled with despair at seeing the whole burden of their subsistence falling on Ginevra, it occurred to him to make use of his handwriting, which was excellent.
She presently reached Ginevra, under the influence of an uneasiness she tried in vain to disguise.
With these new and complex conditions, the aged scholar had tried in vain to cope.
Forces are at work which are constantly endeavouring to upset the village equilibrium, and it is quite in vain to ignore their existence.
It is vain to say that the change is still no more than what was--contemplated by the Book of Common Prayer.
It is in vain that the Judge endeavours to question her, in vain that the High Bailiff tries to calm her, in vain that the clerk lays his hand on her arm--she is bent on telling the Defendant a bit of her mind.
In the outlying towns, where no factories have introduced a new element, it is vain for the most enterprising to start another.
The panic-stricken Mrs. Scutts tried in vain to think.
Despite his utmost efforts he could only get two or three fingers through, and after a vain search for his cap, which had fallen off in the struggle, he made his way to the gate and stood there waiting.
He got it over his head with some difficulty, and, with his arms in the sleeves, tried in vain to get his big hands through the small, lace- trimmed wristbands.
In vain did the sea-king thunder at the gates with his battle-axe--he could not gain admission.
Gurth had endeavoured in vain to dissuade his brother Harold from taking part in the combat.
In vain did William increase the rations of provisions, and supply them with larger portions of strong liquor--the same low feeling of despondency reigned along the shore and in the ships.
From the circular windows, and the lofty roof of the abbey, the monks and their allies threw down heavy stones, and hurled their sharp javelins at the enemy, who had hitherto endeavoured in vain to break open the ponderous doors.
Day and night these thoughts beset him, and he endeavoured in vain to drive them away by religious exercises, and by adding donation upon donation to the churches and monasteries.
In vain did they shrug up their shoulders, lift up their eyes, and exclaim, "No, no!
In vain I reasoned to prove the contrary; I felt dark.
He gathered me in his arms, kissed me and lamented me, and denounced ferocious threats against "Medusa;" while I in vain tried to stop him.
After a few years of vain struggling against material want and lack of adaptation to local conditions, a large number of these colonies were abandoned, and only a few of them have survived until to-day.
After severalvain attempts to stop the riots, the military was forced to shoot at the infuriated crowd, killing and wounding some of them.
Florence breathed, gripping her breast in a vain attempt to still the wild beating of her heart.
Lovejoy had died in vain so far as that address was concerned.
In vain he stretched feeble hands towards his terrified friends.
In vain his friends counselled-- "Wait; to-morrow you shall have everything as you wish!
Julian imagined that nobody nowadays knew or saw that Good Shepherd; and this little picture of old times was somehow connected in his mind with a dream of his childhood which he tried in vain to recover.
At night he had alarming visions and kept six lamps burning in his chamber till daybreak in the vain endeavour to relieve his fears of darkness.
Meantime the town had been scoured in vain for a basin of gold or silver.
In vain did the poor woman explain that she was not permitted to deposit her basket on the roof of the stage, as it was raining; the growls and witticisms at her expense continued, and women were foremost in this rudeness.
She never doubted that he had written to her, for the mail-service to and from the gold regions was notoriously unreliable in those days, and she was by no means the only one who looked in vain for letters thence.
In vain did Mr. Saddlerock (for that was the host's name) insist that the point was too delicate for so humble an individual as himself to presume to pass upon.
He seemed scarcely to note the absence of his wife, who for a quarter of a century had been wearing her life out in a vain endeavor to justify his existence on this globe.
His young wife, maddened with grief, penetrated to the presence of the French general, clasped his knees and plead in vain for mercy.
The agent, having tried in vain to get it up, strained every nerve and muscle to put it in the artery of his antagonist's leg--a favorite blow with Chinese assassins.
He was a vain man and it was difficult for him to realize that he had not produced a favorable impression, so he made the mistake of calling attention to his advantages.
The latter did not know that behind him had hopped into view--Tonkawa, a fat, vain little man with a grotesque body set on a pair of grotesque legs.
In vain the productive classes of Cuba protested, during many years, against this deadly regime.
In vain did the Cubans lay their claims for better administration.
Have cursed the flatteries of vain ambition, and prized a cottage far above a throne?
And it was in vain that he looked back upon the reward he had to stand for that necessary cypher a husband.
I found it vain therefore to press him to a separation, or to lessen his passion, but on the contrary told him, there was a time for all things; if fate had so ordained it that he must love.
In vain he seeks to extinguish his returning flame by the thought of Calista; yet, at that thought, he starts like one awakened from a dream of honour, to fall asleep again, and dream of love.
The money Quilp lent him was gambled away night after night in the vain hope of winning a fortune for his grandchild.
London as much as possible like the New Jerusalem, he dashes in amongst the chaotic mob in the vain hope that he shall be able to send them about their business.
In vain I timidly entered and put the query to the customers at the crowded bar, to potman over the counter, to landlord, exceptionally brilliant in the splendour of his Sunday clothes.
Opposite me was a picture indeed; a respectable-looking man had drunk himself into a maudlin state, from which his friends were in vain endeavouring to arouse him.
The subconscious mind which is not affected by ether, has been exhausting itself in a vain attempt to get the body away from harm.
Their work interrupted or given up for good, their minds harassed by doubts and fears, their bodies incapacitated, they crowd the sanatoria and the health resorts in a vain search for health.
Clytie's narrow eyes widened in surprise, and she turned paler as she looked at him in vain for an answer to her signal of distress.
The Spiritualistic Society protested in vainthat none of the mediums exposed had ever been in good standing with that body of true believers--the wave of gossip drowned its voice.
Then she said, as he tried in vainto unstopper the little jar: "Can you open it, do you think?
But we encountered a heavy gale of wind, which, after a fortnight (during which we attempted in vain to make head against it), forced us back to Smyrna.
I was often visited by Osman Ali, who in vain attempted to make me speak; a harsh guttural sound was all which I would utter to express pain or pleasure.
I was locked up in a room, and in half an hour a slave merchant came, and I was sold for a low sum and taken away, remonstrating in vain against the injustice.
Meanwhile, Grant noticed one of his young assistants was endeavouring in vain to conceal his pleasure over the news of Sheridan's defeat.
Long ago Dumas represented the man who had taken too much wine as trying in vain to enter his own home, explaining to his inebriated friend that the keyhole was lost.
If late from home they chance to stop, Avoid allvain conjectures; And, if they've had a little drop, Refrain from curtain lectures.
Then listen to thy lover's vows, Nor of vain scruples tell us; Why care a pin about your spouse-- Confound him!
You have the sympathy no doubt, Of General Solicitor; But vain the hope that you'll get out Through your illustrious visitor.
Then, Lawyer, all in vain you sue, For Physic must succeed, And what, alas!
Illustration] "Fair Nymph of the perspiring brow, Let these vain scruples cease, While on thy rosy lips I now Imprint the kiss of peace.
Or tender lambkin's fry; But as in vain for MEAT I wish, 'Tis MEET that I should sigh.
What a satire upon all those objects which form so many men's vain aspirations!
Nevertheless, it was invain that Madame De Brecy questioned her.
Then came a glance of triumph, as some two or three hundred of the French men-at-arms dashed on before their companions, and hurled themselves upon the English line, in the vain effort to break the firm array of the archery.
The gates were wide open, not a solitary sentinel guarded the way, and Jean Charost rode into the court-yard, looking round in vain for some one to address.
Twice she turned the little hour-glass that stood upon the table, but at length she said, "It is in vain to wait longer, Monsieur De Brecy.
Vain were it, indeed, to say that they did not take much interest in each other.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "vain" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
