Meaning of in vain | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Without success or a result; ending in failure.
   idiomatic
2. In a disrespectful manner, without honoring the proper meaning; insincerely or without proper respect.
   idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“[…]that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain[…]”

“19th c., Friedrich Nietzsche On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain.”

“For some time Grannie tried in vain to comfort her.”

“All these great plans were in vain, however, for in the cold dawn following the "Mania" years of 1845–46 the M.B.M. & M.J.R. project was truncated to an 11+¹⁄₂-mile line from Ambergate to Rowsley.”

“Knock me down, it's all in vain I get right back on my feet again”

“Thou ſhalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vaine:[…]”

“Methinks I see him even now in my mind's eye;— the firm and upright figure,— the step, quick and determined, — the eye, which shot so keen and so penetrating a glance,— the features on which care had already planted wrinkles, and hear his language, in which he never wasted word in vain, expressed in a voice which had sometimes an occasional harshness, far from the intention of the speaker.”

“A fetishist regime attempts to annul the separation of image and spectator, to reinstall an immediate relation that promises (in vain) to provide satisfaction to desire itself.”

“This petition is the reverse side of the commandment against taking God's name in vain.”

“McLaren's task, it seems, is to set Jesus in a more appropriate and biblical context so that we won't use his name “in vain.””

“That's fine. I know you won't engage your word in vain.”

CEFR level