Englishvain
adjective
1 he was vain about his looks:
conceited, narcissistic, self-loving, in love with oneself, self-admiring, self-regarding, wrapped up in oneself, self-absorbed, self-obsessed, self-centered, egotistic, egotistical, egoistic, egocentric, egomaniac;
proud, haughty, arrogant, boastful, swaggering, imperious, overweening, cocky, affected;
literary vainglorious;
rare peacockish;
(be vain) have an excessively high opinion of oneself, think too highly of oneself, think a lot of oneself;
informal think one is the cat's whiskers/pajamas, think one is God's gift (to women).
▷antonyms modest.
2 a vain attempt to tidy up the room:
futile, useless, pointless, worthless, nugatory, to no purpose, in vain;
ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, impotent, powerless, unavailing, to no avail, fruitless, profitless, unproductive;
unsuccessful, failed, without success, abortive, misfired;
thwarted, balked, frustrated, foiled;
archaic bootless.
▷antonyms successful, productive.
□ in vain
1 they waited in vain for a response:
unsuccessfully, vainly, without success, to no avail, to no purpose, ineffectually, with no result, fruitlessly, profitlessly, unproductively.
▷antonyms successfully.
2 his efforts were in vain:
futile, useless, pointless, to no purpose, worthless, nugatory;
ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, impotent, powerless, unavailing, to no avail, fruitless, profitless, unproductive;
unsuccessful, without success, abortive;
thwarted, balked, frustrated, foiled;
archaic bootless.
▷antonyms successful, productive.
| choose the right word | vain, futile, fruitless, pointless |
| See futile. | |