Vain

invain.

a.	1.	Having no real substance, value, or importance; empty; void; worthless; unsatisfying. Every man walketh in a vain show. - Ps. xxxix. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain words. - Eph. v. 6. Vain pomp, and glory of this world, I hate ye! - Shak. Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy. - Milton.
	2.	Destitute of force or efficacy; effecting no purpose; fruitless; ineffectual; as, vain toil; a vain attempt. Bring no more vain oblations. - Isa. i. 13. Vain is the force of man To crush the pillars which the pile sustain. - Dryden.
	3.	Proud of petty things, or of trifling attainments; having a high opinion of one's own accomplishments with slight reason; conceited; puffed up; inflated. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren? - James ii. 20 (Rev. Ver.). The minstrels played on every side, Vain of their art. - Dryden.
	4.	Showy; ostentatious. Load some vain church with old theatric state. - Pope.
n.	1.	Vanity; emptiness; - now used only in the phrase

For vain

See In vain.

In vain

to no purpose; without effect; ineffectually. - Shak.

To take the name of God in vain

to use the name of God with levity or profaneness. - Milton.

Adj.	1.	vain - characteristic of false pride; having an exaggerated sense of self-importance; "a conceited fool"; "an attitude of self-conceited arrogance"; "an egotistical disregard of others"; "so swollen by victory that he was unfit for normal duty"; "growing ever more swollen-headed and arbitrary"; "vain about her clothes" Synonyms: conceited, self-conceited, swollen-headed, egotistic, egotistical, swollen
	2.	vain - unproductive of success; "a fruitless search"; "futile years after her artistic peak"; "a sleeveless errand"; "a vain attempt" Synonyms: bootless, fruitless, futile, sleeveless

Gascon, absurd, airy, arrogant, asinine, barren, baseless, boastful, boasting, bootlessly, braggart, bragging, catchpenny, cocky, complacent, conceited, consequential, counterproductive, coxcombical, dandyish, delusive, delusory, doomed, effete, egocentric, egoistic, egotistical, etiolated, fanfaron, fanfaronading, fatuitous, fatuous, feckless, flimsy, foolish, foppish, foredoomed, fribble, fribbling, frivolous, frothy, fruitlessly, futilely, gasconading, groundless, haughty, hollow, ill-founded, improperly, in vain, inadequate, inane, ineffective, inefficacious, inoperative, invalid, light, misleading, narcissan, narcissine, narcissistic, narcistic, nugacious, nugatory, of no force, otiose, overproud, overweening, paltry, petty, profitless, proud, puny, self-admiring, self-advertising, self-applauding, self-approving, self-assuming, self-complacent, self-conceited, self-congratulating, self-congratulatory, self-content, self-contented, self-delighting, self-endeared, self-esteeming, self-flattering, self-glorious, self-gratulating, self-gratulatory, self-important, self-lauding, self-loving, self-respecting, self-satisfied, self-sufficient, self-vaunting, shallow, silly, slender, slight, smug, sterile, stuck-up, superficial, thrasonic, thrasonical, trifling, trite, unavailable, unbased, unfounded, ungrounded, unproductive, unprofitable, unsuccessful, unsuccessfully, unsupportable, unsupported, unsustainable, unsustained, untenable, unwarranted, vacuous, vainglorious, vainly, vaporing, vaunting, void, windy, without basis, without foundation, worthless