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