What does vain mean in English?

You can learn vain Pronunciation, Grammar & Synonyms in this most authoritative English Dictionary.

vain Meaning, Definition, Pronunciation, Grammar & Synonyms❤️

0 unsuccessful; of no value:
- The doctors gave him more powerful drugs in the vain hope that he might recover.
- formal It was vain to pretend to himself that he was not disappointed.
- I tried in vain to start a conversation.
- All the police's efforts to find him were in vain.
1 too interested in your own appearance or achievements:
- He was very vain about his hair and his clothes.
2 unsuccessful or useless; failing to achieve a purpose:
- a vain attempt to avoid responsibility
- Employers clearly hoped that the workers would stay longer, but their efforts were largely in vain (= unsuccessful).
3 too proud of yourself, esp. in your appearance or achievements

As he quite logically pointed out, no one would be vain of literacy in a society where everyone was literate.
I too hoped and waited for one until now- but in vain.
He could hardly have expounded his position more clearly: quite bluntly, any plans to abolish music are described as vain.
The overarching problem that inspired the controversy is an essential discrepancy that one hopes, in vain, is merely literary or typographical.
The reforming conductor's efforts were in vain; thus 'rue', an old-fashioned literary word for regret.
Not in vain were the author and reciter of the epic called sarvadarshi, all-seeing.
Their efforts were largely in vain, however, since the separate disciplines tended to continue on their way unaffected by the rhetoric of unity.
I looked in vain for the terms theropod, cynodont and perissodactyl and yet some 10% of the definitions are apparently devoted to palaeontology.