Tra từ vain - Từ điển LongMan Dictionary

vain/veɪn/ adjective
[date : 1300-1400; Language : Old French; Origin : Latin vanus 'empty, vain']
1. someone who is vain is too proud of their good looks, abilities, or position – used to show disapproval SYN conceited:
　 ▪ Men can be just as vain as women.

2. in vain

a) without success in spite of your efforts:
　 ▪ Police searched in vain for the missing gunman.
b) without purpose or without positive results:
　 ▪ Altman swore that his son’s death would not be in vain. ⇨ take sb’s name in vain at name¹(12)

3. a vain attempt, hope, or search fails to achieve the result you wanted
vain attempt/effort/bid
　 ▪ The young mother died in a vain attempt to save her drowning son.

4. vain threat/promise etc
literary a threat, promise etc that is not worrying because the person cannot do what they say they will

—vainly adverb:
　 ▪ The instructor struggled vainly to open his parachute.
• • •
COLLOCATIONS (for Meaning 3)
nouns
▪a vain attempt/bid/effort
　 ▪ People close their windows at night in a vain attempt to shut out the sound of gunfire.
▪a vain hope
　 ▪ Young men moved south in the vain hope of finding work.
▪a vain search
　 ▪ Mothers have been to every shop in town in a vain search for the toy.
• • •
THESAURUS
▪proud very pleased with what you, your family, or your country have achieved, or of something you own :
　 ▪ I felt so proud when my son graduated from college.
　 ▪ Judith’s very proud of her new Ferrari.
▪pleased with yourself feeling pleased because something good has happened, especially because you think you have been very clever, skilful etc :
　 ▪ He was smoking a big cigar and was obviously pleased with himself.
　 ▪ I’d made a big profit and was feeling pretty pleased with myself.
▪arrogant disapproving behaving in an unpleasant and annoying way, because you think you are better or know more than other people, and that your opinions are always right :
　 ▪ He was arrogant and regarded people who disagreed with him as fools.
　 ▪ his arrogant attitude to women
▪vain disapproving too proud of your appearance, in a way that annoys other people :
　 ▪ He’s so vain – he thinks all the girls fancy him.
▪conceited/big-headed disapproving proud of yourself because you think you are very intelligent, skilful, beautiful etc, especially without good reason and in a way that annoys people :
　 ▪ Stewart’s the most arrogant conceited person I’ve ever known.
　 ▪ She was offered a brilliant job and became incredibly big-headed overnight.
▪pompous disapproving thinking that you are much more important than you really are, and using very long and formal words to try to sound important :
　 ▪ The clerk was a pompous little man with glasses.
　 ▪ a pompous speech
▪smug disapproving pleased with yourself in a quiet but annoying way because you think you are in a better position than other people :
　 ▪ Milly was looking very smug about coming top of the class.
　 ▪ a smug expression
▪self-satisfied disapproving pleased with what you have achieved and showing it clearly in an annoying way :
　 ▪ She glared angrily into his self-satisfied face.
　 ▪ a self-satisfied grin

adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a vain attempt (=one that does not succeed)
▪ They worked through the night in a vain attempt to finish on schedule.
a vain/forlorn hope (=hope for something that is impossible)
▪ He traveled south in the vain hope of finding work.
an empty/idle/vain boast (=a false statement that something is good or possible)
▪ ‘Making knowledge work’ is the university’s phrase, and it is no idle boast not a boast, but true.
search in vain
▪ He searched in vain for a means of escape.
unsuccessfully/in vain
▪ He has tried unsuccessfully to quit smoking.
wait in vain (=wait for something that never happens)
▪ They waited in vain for their son to come home.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
NOUN
attempt
▪ Fifi was back at the bars and stretching out her hand in a vain attempt to reach the steel tray.
▪ Atmel is spending $ 400 million this year in a vain attempt to meet demand.
▪ Curling his toes in a vain attempt to frustrate the inhospitable lino, Mungo watched, fascinated.
▪ Something walking across her grave ... or the forces in heaven laughing at her vain attempts to re-write her future?
▪ People close their windows at night in a vain attempt to shut out the sound of sirens and gunfire.
▪ Once, I dived full-length across the court in a vain attempt to retrieve the ball.
▪ In a vain attempt to maintain her independence, she spent Monday and Tuesday nights at home - alone.
▪ The protesters flung handfuls of earth into the trenches in a vain attempt to lift the siege of the West Bank town.
bid
▪ Mr Lamont's squandering of £1 billion in his vain bid to prop up the pound has not helped.
effort
▪ I had visited her often in the London hospital where vain efforts were made to stop the spread of cancer.
hope
▪ This proved a vain hope, as the young student soon acquired a following of like-minded people.
▪ In the last months of 1978 several of his former servants were arrested in this vain hope.
▪ It was usually a vain hope.
▪ But I knew this was a vain hope because the house was always locked securely.
▪ Better than enduring his fumbling during the night in the vain hope of satisfaction when the need was strong in her.
▪ But since passion does not come in bottles it seems a vain hope.
▪ Guided by a mournful bleating, he came across several groups of sheep, huddled together in the vain hope of safety.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
take sb's name in vain
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ He stretched up his arms in a vain effort to reach the top of the embankment.
▪ I am vain enough to want to look good, but not to style my hair and paint my toenails.
▪ I remembered all my vain attempts to change his mind.
▪ She's a vain girl who is always thinking about her figure.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Later, it tried in vain to conquer the whole of the subcontinent.
▪ Pollsters have searched in vain for pockets of disloyalty.
▪ So look at your friends, see what they are a little vain about and then multiply by a factor of ten.
▪ The vain girl did a little dance in them, but when she tried to stop, the shoes kept on dancing.
▪ They are so vain in bed, much more vain than women.