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Chambers (1908)

Vain

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[Fr.,—L. vanus, empty.]

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Vain, vān, adj. unsatisfying: fruitless: unreal: silly: conceited: showy: (B.) vacant, worthless.—adv. Vain′ly.—ns. Vain′ness, fruitlessness: (Shak.) empty pride, folly; Van′ity, worthlessness, futility: empty pride or ostentation: ambitious display: idle show: empty pleasure: fruitless desire, a trifle: (Shak.) a personified vice in the old moralities and puppet-shows: (B.) a heathen deity.—Vanity Fair, the world as the scene of vanity or empty folly, the world of fashion, so named from the fair described in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.—In vain, For vain (Shak.), ineffectually: to no end: with levity or profanity. [Fr.,—L. vanus, empty.]

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  • Historical scholarship from 1908; not current consensus or editorial verification.
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Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

Publisher marks these historical texts public domain in the USA. Transformed book text excludes Gutenberg branding; source attribution is a bibliographic acknowledgment. No non-US public-domain determination is made.

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