vainness

1 She is very vain about her appearance.

2 He is the vainest man I know.

3 A vain effort to quell the public's fears only made matters worse.

4 Volunteers searched the area in the vain hope of finding clues.

5 For a half a century, scholars have searched in vain for the source of the jade that the early civilizations of the Americas prized above all else and fashioned into precious objects of worship, trade and adornment.

6 … the miseries of people's lives ought not to be exploited ad libitum in the furtherance of our profits or our careers, and in the vain conviction that we understand everything.

7 It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

8 Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.

9 Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain …

10 Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend.

11 When his successor at the State Department, Paul Nitze, globalized containment in National Security Council Paper No. 68 and provided a rationale for the Truman Doctrine — which promised an American response to any communist threat — Kennan loudly protested in vain.

1 无效

unprevalent bad dead void invalid null irregular ineffective vain unproductive inoperative unavailing nugatory otiose infructuous vainly uselessly avoidance invalidity nullification invalidation nullity vitiation voidance flaw negative cancel override revoke negate neutralize paralyze invalidate annihilate nullify quash of no avail to no effect without result with no result bring to naught put the kibosh on

2 自负

self-affected flatuous secure vain strut pragmatic pretentious pompous ostentatious conceited boastful overconfident chesty flatulent overweening self-assertive priggish self-opinionated vapouring thrasonical vainly vauntingly priggism boast inflation ego vanity perch conceit sufficiency pragmatism pretension self-love flatulence overconfidence vainglory vaunt pomposity self-assertion self-conceit tympany self-pride self-glorification amour-propre priggery flatulency egotize swell bloat preen blow swollen cranium

3 无益

unprofited unnecessary useless idle ineffective pointless vain worthless barren futile fruitless unprofitable ineffectual inoperative purposeless unavailing profitless bootless resultless ungainful uselessly futility barrenness all for naught to no end good-for-nought void frustrate null sterile unhelpful feckless footless good-for-nothing inutile vainly idleness inutility

4 虚荣

vanity pomp pretension peacockery

5 自夸

vain pretentious conceited spread-eagle vapouring crack brag puffiness mickey vaunt self-conceit jactation jactitation boast vapour gasconade plume vaunt courier