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• s  characteristic of false pride; having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
  vain about her clothes
• s  unproductive of success
  a vain attempt

• On Comedy Central's The Colbert Report (silent t, both words), he plays a vain, blustery political pundit, and neither politics nor punditry emerges unscathed.
• Many of the responses were hostile ("You vain vain expletive," one read), but a woman, Mandy Johnston, took the job--delivering to the guys afterward an elaborate package of .
• Some traditionalists hoped (in vain) that Kennedy, a longtime abortion rights and gay-marriage supporter, wouldn't even be allowed a Catholic funeral.

• conceited
• egotistic
• egotistical
• self-conceited
• swollen
• swollen-headed
• bootless
• fruitless
• futile
• sleeveless

News & Articles

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• U-M study: Facebook, Twitter lures for narcissists
  Is social media for the vain? A University of Michigan study thinks so.
  June 12, 2013 - Detroit News
• 2013 U.S. Open: Sergio Garcia’s really, really sorry but he still doesn’t care for Tiger Woods
  Sergio Garcia can’t apologize enough for the racist crack he made at Tiger Woods’ expense last month. But even after trying in vain to offer a face-to-face mea culpa to his arch foe , the former El Nino just could not cough up any warm fuzzies about the game’s top-ranked golfer. “Don’t get me wrong, I respect Tiger very much. I think he’s a wonderful player,” Garcia, who was reduced to leaving a ...
  June 12, 2013 - SB Nation
• U-M study: Facebook, Twitter lures for narcissists
  Is social media for the vain? A University of Michigan study thinks so.
  June 12, 2013 - Detroit News

Quotes

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• Gordon Brown in Telegraph.co.uk
  The efforts of our troops in Helmand have been nothing short of heroic,Mr Brown told the Evening Standard. "There has been a tragic human cost. But this has not been in vain."
• Abraham Lincoln in BBC News (blog)
  He said: "That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation under God shall have a...
• Tony Blair in CNN International
  I am truly sorry about the dangers that they face today in Iraq and Afghanistan,Blair said. "I know some may think that they face these dangers in vain; I don't and I never will. I believe they are fighting for the security of this country...